Bush refuses to rule out strikes inside Pakistan

US President George W Bush has refused to rule out unilateral US strikes on al Qaeda safe havens inside Pakistan if specific intelligence zeroed on top leaders of the terrorist outfit.

Washington, Aug 7 : US President George W Bush has refused to rule out unilateral US strikes on al Qaeda safe havens inside Pakistan if specific intelligence zeroed on top leaders of the terrorist outfit.

Bush declined to spell out whether he would seek Pakistan's permission to strike at extremists inside its borders if he had "actionable intelligence."

"I'm confident that with actionable intelligence we will be able to bring top al-Qaeda to justice," he said at a joint press conference after a summit with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai.

"We're in constant communications with the Pakistan Government. It's in their interest that foreign fighters be brought to justice. After all, these are the same ones who are plotting to kill President Musharraf," Bush said.

The News quoted Bush as saying that given an opening and good intelligence "we will get the job done".

Bush and Karzai agreed that Pakistan must help to end the deadly violence inside Afghanistan.

The focus of their talks was on a Pak-Afghan Jirga going to take place in Kabul from August 9.

Bush said that the Jirga would focus on "how we can work together-how you can work together-to achieve common solutions to problems. And the main problem is to fight extremism."

Commenting on civilian casualties stemming from Nato or US strikes inside Afghanistan, Bush assured Karzai "we would do everything that we can to protect the innocent".

ANI