WASHINGTON, June 5: A United States paper stated on Wednesday that America might hold out the prospect of new economic assistance and continuing debt relief to Pakistan in return for action to prevent cross-border infiltration. It might also offer inducements to India to exercise restraint.

The Los Angeles Times quoted a senior State Department official as saying if the US could work with Gen Pervez Musharraf on “ending support for violence, then that’s the kind of country we can do business with. So this is a chance for Pakistan to achieve its own goals and in the process make itself a respected member of the international community”.

The official’s remarks are quoted in a long report that, along with similar reports in other major US papers, speculates that President Putin of Russia failed in his bid at Almaty to persuade the leaders of Pakistan and India to make peace.

However, the newspaper detects a “glimmer of hope” and recalls State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher’s remark during his briefing on Tuesday that the US did have “some indications that Pakistani actions (on cross-border incursions) go beyond words”.