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US to make third high-level visit to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Senior U.S. State Department official Karl Inderfurth will visit Pakistan on Thursday, the third high-level U.S. visit in one week, a U.S. Embassy official said on Sunday.

The Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth, will meet Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf and will push for a timetable for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan after last October's coup, the embassy official said.

He will also discuss terrorism and regional security, the official said.

"It's part of an ongoing process and he will raise many of the issues the others did," the official said.

Inderfurth's visit follows one by a delegation led by Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, which ended on Saturday, and another one by Senator Sam Brownback, chairman of the Sub-Committee on the Near East and South Asia of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, which ends on Monday.

Daschle declined to coment on the talks, but a Pakistan government statement said he was told by Musharraf that the military was committed to restoring democracy.

"They were apprised in detail about the measures for economic revival and social development," the statement said.

"The government is committed to restoration of democratic institutions on the basis of devolution of power and to hold district level elections during the current year," it added.

The United States has been pushing Musharraf to clearly outline when he plans to return Pakistan to a democratic government, but has stopped short of calling for a return of prime minister Nawaz Sharif, toppled in a bloodless coup on October 12.

The embassy official said the case of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, wanted in the United States in connection with the bomb attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, would also be raised during Inderfurth's visit.

"He will be accompanied by Michael Sheehan (coordinator for counter-terrorism at the State Department), so that will be part of it," the official said.

The United States has also been pushing for Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and to resume a dialogue with India.-Reuters