US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter called on Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Friday to discuss the matter. “The US envoy asked for consular access to the American national and it was accepted,” said a senior official here on condition of anonymity.

“However, the US envoy was told the government would discuss the issue with the Punjab government which is directly involved in the incident,” he said, adding that the US ambassador was assured that the law would be followed. An embassy  statement said  Davis has a US diplomatic passport and valid Pakistani visa until June 2012.

The government, already severely criticized for being submissive to the US, is most likely to come under intense domestic pressure to be tough on the American. “We are already seeing small protests around the country and it is expected that these demonstrations will grow larger in coming days,” he said.

A Pakistani diplomat said one problem for the Pakistani authorities was the question about Davis’ “real” identity. “The way he behaved has led to the conclusion that he couldn’t be an ordinary diplomat,” said the diplomat who preferred anonymity.

He said the present government is already blamed for being too lenient when it comes to issuing visas to Americans intending to travel to Islamabad, and Pakistani security agencies are worried that there might be some dubious people taking advantage of that leniency.

“Now, we again witness a widespread debate of possible links between the infamous US private security firm Blackwater and the arrested American in Lahore, and all these things are creating a lot of trouble for the government,” he said.

However, a Western diplomat said Davis, if proved that he acted in self-defense, stands a good chance of avoiding prosecution under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. He said that according to the Vienna Convention, Pakistan has the right to ask the US to lift a diplomat’s immunity, but history has shown that the convention has helped rescue several envoys found guilty of killing or injuring people across the world.

US Embassy spokeswoman Courtney Beale told The Associated Press that the official was “a member of the administrative and technical staff.”

Separately, a senior US official told AP that the man was authorized by the United States to carry a weapon, but that it was a “grey area” whether he could do so in Pakistan. “This is a test case for our rulers,” Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, was quoted as saying by AP.

“A foreigner, an American cannot be allowed to shed blood this way. The matter is in the court. The facts will be revealed there.”

The senior US official told the news agency that the embassy was concerned about the man’s safety inside jail. He said the killing of the governor of Punjab province earlier this month by a police officer assigned to guard him had alarmed many in Washington.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he understood that some Pakistanis were angry about the incident. But that he was concerned officials in the Punjab were “pandering” to those emotions, citing a visit Friday by the province’s chief minister to the home of one of the Pakistanis killed.