ISLAMABAD, May 10: US Assistant Secretary of State Ms Christina Rocca was due to arrive here on Monday night to conduct bilateral talks on "serious" matters, a fact already conveyed to the Pakistani officials by their American counterparts , Dawn learnt through informed diplomatic sources.

Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan confirmed the visit when contacted by Dawn on Monday night. "Serious bilateral, regional and international issues will figure in her meetings with senior Pakistani policy-makers, including President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri," diplomatic sources told Dawn.

Ms Rocca's plan includes a day-long trip to Chitral on Tuesday where she will be visiting USAID health and education projects. She is likely to return to Islamabad on Wednesday where she will hold her official meetings.

The Americans find themselves in the middle of two vastly divergent agenda of dealing with what they believe to be the question of Pakistan-based foreign terrorists and aggressive promotion of social sector development, even if controversial for reasons of it being an indirect attack at the present state of madrassas.

Although Rocca's trip was planned as a follow-up to her earlier March visit to Pakistan with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, it acquires special significance at the present time.

Three important developments internationally, regionally and bilaterally have taken place over the last 100 hours. Internationally the ugly face of the Americans has never before been so widely broadcast globally, courtesy the debase behaviour of the US occupation troops in Iraq.

International calls for the resignation of the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Iraqi calls for complete pullout of the US troops appear to have become unending.

Hence, a request for Pakistan's contribution to an international coalition force to 'calm down' the turbulent security situation in Iraq will be inevitable, sources maintained.

Regionally the first salvo from across the border in some ways undermining the much-welcomed peace process between India and Pakistan has been shot by none other than Indian Prime Minister - the man seeking friendship with Pakistan - Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Matters in the Indian Held Kashmir have not gone well during the election. Independent observers estimate voter turnout in Kashmir to have been 15 per cent in sharp contrast to over 55 per cent in India.

Admittedly the numerous bomb blasts and election-related deaths may have put pressure on India's 'man of peace' to make this statement. Notably, Pakistan has not opted for the usual reactive rhetoric against India and instead expressed the hope that the ongoing peace process will remain on track. Yet Indian diplomats are known to be still complaining of Pakistan's failure to dismantle the "terrorist infrastructure".

Interested in the containment of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the United States is likely to raise this with the government of Pakistan. Finally, in the bilateral context, two successive incidents of violation of Pakistan territory by the US troops operating in Afghanistan has been condemned publicly by the Government of Pakistan.

Behind closed doors the US has been conveyed that a repetition of such serious violations of its territory could lead to unravelling of a framework of coordinated action put together by the Pakistanis and the Americans to deal with the threat of foreign fighters.