A senior US official on Thursday opposed the new government's intended talks with pro-Taliban militants who have launched a series of suicide attacks on security forces in recent months. "I don't see how you can talk to those kind of people," said US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, adding they "want to destroy our way of life."
The visiting envoy said the "extremist threat" in Pakistan is a cause of great concern. "It occurs not only in federally administered tribal areas but it has spread to the settled areas," he told reporters in Karachi at the end of his four-day visit to the country.