25 November 2004	Thursday	12 Shawwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: President Gen Pervez Musharraf will impress upon US President George W. Bush during their meeting on Dec 4 to help resolve some of the key outstanding issues and territorial disputes dogging the Muslim world , especially the question of Palestine, to its satisfaction.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said this while talking to newsmen at the Foreign Office on Wednesday. The Washington meeting would be an important interaction between the two leaders, the first face-to-face encounter after Mr Bush's re-election as US president for a second term, he said.

The meeting will be held during a short refuelling stopover in Washington for President Musharraf's aircraft when he will be flying back home from his Latin American tour early next month.

Replying to a question, Mr Kasuri said President Musharraf would ask Mr Bush to facilitate further enhancement in the US-Pakistan cooperation during his second term in office. The details of further cooperation, he added, would be thrashed out in due course.

Responding to another question, the foreign minister said that he would not comment on the internal party politics of the United States. What mattered for Pakistan was that Mr Bush had been re-elected whose close ties with Pakistani leadership were well-known, he emphasized.

As foreign minister, he said, he could claim that a strong foundation for bilateral relationship had already been laid and it would be strengthened in Mr Bush's second term in office.

Mr Kasuri said he had had an opportunity to have detailed interaction with Ms Condoleezza Rice as National Security Adviser and was confident there would be no adverse impact on Pakistan-US relations with her induction as the Secretary of State in place of Mr Colin Powell whose very good attitude towards Pakistan was a public knowledge.

He said he was satisfied that Pakistan's defence requirements had received favourable consideration in the US administration and that the same attitude would continue. He expressed Pakistan's complete satisfaction about the nature of US cooperation with Pakistan in all spheres, including defence.

This was noticeable in quicker response to Pakistan's requests for arms licences which had been issued in a shorter period since the country was declared a major non-NATO ally, he pointed out.

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