June 03, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1429

WASHINGTON, June 2: The White House urged Pakistan on Monday not to allow terrorists to maintain ‘safe havens’ on its soil as a car bombing outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad killed eight people and wounded many others.

“It does serve as a reminder to the government of Pakistan and to all governments that terrorism is real, that it cannot be allowed to have safe haven, they must be dealt with and confronted,” said White House press secretary Dana Perino.

“We condemn the terrorist attack, there is no justification for it,” she said. “The president has been briefed; he offers his condolences to victims of violence and their families.”

“We also express our concerns for the people who were targeted, because obviously that creates a lot of fear and uncertainty and that’s what terrorists try to do, which is to instil fear,” she said.

Meanwhile, Admiral Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also expected to urge Pakistani leaders to expedite their efforts to uproot terrorism from their soil when he meets them in Islamabad later this week.

Before leaving for Islamabad, he told reporters in Singapore that the situation in Pakistan ‘concerns’ the United States but the US also believed that the Pakistanis had the best understanding of their country’s tribal areas and the best potential for success there.

“I think we need to stay engaged with them and be supportive of that,” he said.