India tests medium-range missile, Pakistan charges U.S. bias

WASHINGTON -- Pakistan has urged the United States to lift sanctions from Islamabad as India launched another missile test.

"They [sanctions] single out one country and are not consistent with friendly relations," Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said. "The U.S. government and the U.S. Congress should adopt a more general, evenhanded, balanced approach to Pakistan."

Sattar held talks on Friday with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on sanctions, nuclear policy, tension with India and Islamabad's support for the ruling Taliban faction in Afghanistan. The foreign minister pledged to honor any arms control arrangement reached in south Asia, Middle East Newsline reported.

"Pakistan's relations with the United States remain troubled but friendly,'' Sattar said. "We are prepared to accept any restraints and nonproliferation measures on a nondiscriminatory, regional or global basis."

U.S. officials used Sattar's visit to criticize the Indian test of the medium-range Prithvi missile. They said Sattar and his U.S. hosts agreed to prevent arms proliferation in Asia. This included Pakistani participation in a moratorium on production of nuclear materials pending implementation of the fissile material cutoff treaty.

"There was agreement to continue to work closely together to prevent further proliferation, an arms race, and conflict in the region," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Meanwhile under heavy U.S. pressure, Pakistan says it has launched a crackdown on terrorism.

Officials said the government has drafted an ambitious plan to eliminate the cells of Islamic insurgents operating in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. The military government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf denied that it was acting under U.S. directives.

Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said the fundamentalists are "fanning sectarian violence and poisoning people's minds."

The officials said the crackdown will include fundamentalists linked to Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden. The United States has urged Pakistan to make this a priority and the issue was high on the agenda in this week's talks in Islamabad and Washington between officials of both nations.

A U.S. panel formed by Congress has urged the Clinton administration to slap sanctions on Islamabad.

Haider said the first step by the government would be to impose control on thousands of religious schools. He said many of them preach hatred of the West and provide young recruits for the Islamic insurgency in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.

Some of these recruits also join Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

The interior minister said the next step would be to change the character of the estimated 40,000 religious schools throughout Pakistan. Only about a tenth of them have been registered with the government.

Officials acknowledged that Islamabad does not want to lose the support of Islamic fundamentalists, regarded as a leading constituency.

On Thursday, State Department counterterrorism coordinator told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Islamabad's record on terrorism is mixed. He said Pakistan has arrested and extradited suspected terrorists. At the same time, Pakistan allows terrorists to live in the country and move freely.

"We have a lot more to do, but we see that our engagement is beginning to yield progress," Sheehan said.