WASHINGTON, Sept 2: The United States does not believe that the Pakistan army is going to become a “breeding ground” for religious extremists because as an institution it has stayed above such trends, US officials said on Tuesday.

“No, we have no particular worries about the presence of extremists in the Pakistan army,” a State Department official told Dawn while commenting on media reports suggesting that Pakistan had detained some army officers for their alleged links to the Al Qaeda organization.

“Our general view has been that the Pakistan army has kept itself above this sort of (tendencies) as an institution,” said the State Department official.

Like all large institutions, he said, the Pakistan army also “has a wide variety of members, but has managed the situation very well.”

The army, he said: “sees itself as the guardian of the Pakistani nation and not of any particular ideology,” said the official.“We have no particular worries.”

When asked to comment on a press report that the FBI had helped Pakistani authorities find the detained officers, the US official said: “We have no information about it.”

Commenting on another news report that the United States is providing $9 billion to Pakistan for weapons purchase, the State Department official said he had never heard of such an offer.