NEW DELHI, 15 July 2004 — The US is satisfied with Pakistan’s crackdown on Al-Qaeda in its South Waziristan area but will lean on Islamabad to do more against remnants of Afghanistan’s former Taleban regime, a senior US official said yesterday.

“We are certainly satisfied that the battle against the Al-Qaeda is one in which our Pakistani friends are engaged full force,” US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters in New Delhi just before leaving for Islamabad. “You know as well as I do that the activities in the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), Waziristan have been quite muscular,” he said.

On the question of the Taleban, Armitage noted that the situation was “a bit more complicated” given the “historical links” between Pakistan and the militia who administered Afghanistan before they were toppled in 2001. “I will myself be trying to encourage the Pakistanis to be a little more muscular on that end as well,” he added.

Armitage met new Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, using the opportunity to nurture ties and becoming the first senior US official to meet leaders of the Congress-led government that took power after a May election victory.

However, his focus was on Pakistan, a key ally of Washington in its war against terror, saying it had satisfied the United States by going “full force” after remnants of the Al-Qaeda network sheltering in rugged mountains on the Afghan border.

Armitage said he would also raise the issue of continued violence in Indian Kashmir during talks in Islamabad.

“Clearly, people are still dying and this is not an acceptable situation,” he said. The disputed region, where tens of thousands of people have been killed in a 15-year uprising against Indian rule, is at the heart of enmity between New Delhi and Islamabad and nearly triggered their fourth war in 2002.

Armitage said the situation in South Asia was much more positive than a year or two ago. But Kashmiri militant bases believed to exist on Pakistani soil were yet to be fully dismantled and militant incursions into Indian Kashmir halted.

“I think it’s probably down a little bit,” Armitage said referring to rebel incursions. “But that’s not the point. The point is not to have it at all.”

Armitage arrived in Islamabad late yesterday for talks with Pakistani leaders on Iraq, counterterrorism and relations between Pakistan and India, officials said. Armitage will have “substantive” talks today with Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and would also meet Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told AFP.

He will also call on Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is to take over as the country’s prime minister next month.

The agenda of his talks here includes bilateral relations, cooperation in the war against terrorism and Pakistan-India relations, Khan said.