WASHINGTON, Dec 13: The United States needs Pakistan despite differences between national goals of the two countries, says a prominent US newspaper Houston Chronicle. In an editorial titled “The United States needs Pakistan despite lapses in democracy, human rights,” published on Wednesday, the newspaper noted that America’s alliance with Pakistan was “as old as it is difficult.”

“Because of the war on ‘Islamic’ terrorism, the United States needs Pakistan as an ally now more than ever. However, differences between national aims are likely to keep the alliance as tense as ever,” the newspaper said.

The editorial also refers to a meeting between Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Mahmud Ali Durrani, and President George W. Bush.

When the ambassador recently presented his credentials to President Bush, the president asked what he did before arriving in Washington. The ambassador, a political appointee from the private sector, said he told Mr Bush, "I was having fun". "Me, too," Mr Bush said.

“Neither can be having much fun today,” the paper commented. Mr Bush struggles to justify a war in Iraq that he can't end.

Ambassador Durrani told the Chronicle editorial board last week that he spends his days discussing the quality of Pakistani democracy, human rights and nuclear non-proliferation, all issues that make the US-Pakistani alliance problematic.

“While Pakistan frequently strays from elected government, gives women few rights and protections, and engages in a nuclear arms race with India, the ambassador said there is one sin of which Pakistan is not guilty: supporting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.”

Ambassador Durrani admitted that Pakistan had supported the Mujahideen freedom fighters (as had the CIA) during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Pakistan also backed the fighters when they became the Taliban as a means of stabilizing an Afghanistan torn apart by warlords.

The paper noted that for years the US invasion of Iraq has distracted US commanders, who diverted resources needed in Afghanistan. Financed by money from the opium poppy trade and supplied with munitions from Iraq, Ambassador Durrani told the Chronicle, the Taliban once again "own the night."

He said Pakistan wishes to be an Asian energy and commercial hub. For that, he said, it needs stability in the region, particularly in bordering Afghanistan. It has nothing to gain and much to lose from the resurgent Taliban. Mr Durrani said his nation was providing maximum cooperation in the war on terror.

Mr Durrani took pride in the progress and said Pakistan is making in women's rights. It had nullified a tribal law that allowed raped women to be punished as adulterers. A progressive media and enlightened NGOs were battling the vengefulness of Pakistan's tribal areas.