WASHINGTON, March 3: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has ruled out any links between “elements” within Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and those accused of involvement in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder episode.

Asked on a CNN Sunday talk show whether he was convinced that “elements of ISI” were not involved, Secretary Powell said he had no evidence to suggest that this was the case.

He pointed out that he had spoken to President Pervez Musharraf a number of times during the course of this crisis, and “I know that President Musharraf did everything he could to try to find out who was holding Danny Pearl. And so I have seen nothing to suggest that the Pakistanis were in any way complicit with this”.

Pakistan ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, appearing on another CNN talk show on Sunday, also categorically discounted innundoes in the US press about involvement of renegade ISI elements in the Pearl case. She pointed out that not a shred of evidence had come to light to suggest that Pakistan’s intelligence services were not under full government control.