April 22, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 21: Britain on Monday said Pakistan needed to be more precise about its reconciliation policy with militants.

“The whole import of our discussion up till now has been that we need a far greater degree of precision and detail about what and whom we are talking, when we are talking about reconciliation and that why it is important — reconciliation with whom; reconciliation about what and reconciliation in aid of what,” said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband at a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Mr Miliband said that reconciliation did not mean creating safe space for terrorists, but dividing those ideologically committed to waging war against Pakistan and other countries from those who were ready to renounce violence.

He said there was direct evidence of presence of Al Qaeda in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan and called for greater cooperation between Pakistani, Afghan and coalition forces in combating them.

Supporting Pakistan’s re-entry into Commonwealth, Mr Miliband said Britain wanted to be a leading voice in seeking Pakistan’s re-entry into the 53-nation grouping.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said UK-Pakistan ties were multi-faceted and not unifocal.

Mr Miliband also met President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Talking to Mr Miliband, Mr Gilani said the new democratic government was adopting a multi-pronged strategy because the earlier strategy had failed to produce desired results.

President Musharraf in his meeting with the British foreign secretary said the government would continue to confront extremism and terrorism in all its forms through a broad-based approach combining military, political and economic strategies.