WASHINGTON, July 10: Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said on Monday the United States agreed with the suggestion that Pakistan and Afghanistan should not discuss their differences publicly.

Talking to the media after his meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mr Kasuri said he has presented a ‘concrete suggestion’ for removing differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “The US knows and the Afghans also understand what we are doing,” he said while referring to Pakistan’s efforts to curb insurgency along the border with Afghan.

He said that at an earlier meeting with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and during his discussions with Secretary Rice he emphasised the need for putting ‘concrete suggestions’ rather than making statements. “And the Americans agree with us that Pakistan and Afghanistan should not discuss it publicly,” he added while referring to recent statements by Afghan leaders blaming Pakistan for a rapid increase in insurgency this summer.

Referring to Kabul’s suggestion that Pakistan needs to do more to curb insurgency, he said: “We need concrete suggestions otherwise everybody needs to do more.”

He said his talks with Secretary Rice focused on bilateral relations and the Afghan issue, although Islamabad’s relations with New Delhi and the need for democratic reforms in Pakistan were also discussed.

Mr Kasuri disagreed with the suggestion that Pakistan’s relations with the United States were passing through a bad patch.

“No way,” said Mr Kasuri when asked if US-Pakistan relations had soured recently. “I completely disagree.”

He recalled that at a joint press briefing before the meeting, Secretary Rice described America’s ties with Pakistan as a “broad and deep strategic relationship.”

In her opening statement, Ms Rice said her meeting with Mr Kasuri was “an opportunity to have a more expanded discussion of the many issues in US-Pakistan relations.”

Since the Pakistani media was not invited to the briefing, there’s was no question on US-Pakistan relations. Representatives of the US media availed this access to Secretary Rice to ask her about the North Korean missile crisis and the situation in Iraq, completely ignoring the guest as they always do on such occasions.

Mr Kasuri said Pakistan’s relations with the US had already moved beyond the war on terror and the two countries were working to further cooperation in diverse fields such as energy, education, science and technology and economic cooperation.