June 4, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22,1423

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ISLAMABAD, June 3: The demand consistently being made by the US that Islam-abad “should deliver on its promise” in order to de-escalate tension in the region, will be one of the subjects, which the Pakistani authorities would discuss with senior US officials during their visit here next week.

Speaking at his weekly press briefing here on Monday, Foreign Office spokesman Aziz A. Khan said that the two senior US officials — Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage — were expected to arrive here soon for talks with President Gen Pervez Musharraf and senior officials.

Mr Armitage is due here some time later this week, while Mr Rumsfeld is to follow him soon after, the spokesman said. However, exact dates of their visits would be announced later, he added.

The main object of the high-ranking US government officials’ visit to Islamabad and later to India, is to defuse tension in the region as a result of massing troops on borders by both the countries.

When asked whether Washington had amplified what did it mean when it demanded that Pakistan “should deliver on its promise”, the spokesman said that the issue had been under discussion and it would be “the one subject which would be discussed” during the visits of the American dignitaries.

However, he firmly refuted Indian allegation that Pakistan was sending terrorists into held Kashmir, saying the charge was totally baseless and designed to mislead the world powers and to serve as its ploy.

He said Pakistan had offered alternative suggestions to India to agree to deployment of independent monitors or the United Nations observers to ascertain the true situation along the border and report to the world body.

He said that Pakistan was not involved in any border infiltration activity.

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