WASHINGTON, May 9: The United States has strongly condemned Wednesday’s suicide bombing in Karachi, describing it as a “a heinous attack against France and Pakistan, two of our closest allies in the war on terrorism”.

The attack came on the same day as senior Pakistani and American officials met in Washington for the first gathering of the Pakistan-US Joint Working Group on Counter-terrorism and Law Enforcement.

The White House in a statement said the attack “uderscores the dangers all our citizens and societies continue to face from such attacks, and strengthens our resolve to continue working together to fight terrorism at home and abroad.”

In his opening remarks at the working group’s day-long meeting, which was held at the state department, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage offered his condolences to Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider, who led the Pakistan side. The minister was due on Thursday to meet National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Attorney-General John Ashcroft.

There was no word as to whether the working group also specifically considered General Pervez Musharraf’s statement after the Karachi attack that he would seek foreign help in fighting terrorism in Pakistan. One of the objectives of the group is to improve anti-terrorism coordination between the two countries, and operatives from US intelligence and security services have already been working with Pakistan authorities in the search for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. They have also been engaged in investigations relating to the Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder case.

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said at his afternoon briefing on Wednesday the US was prepared to provide whatever assistance Pakistan authorities might require. Mr Boucher said there were some American citizens who were guests at the Sheraton Hotel at the time of the blast who sustained superficial cuts and scrapes. “We have no indication that any other Americans were harmed in the Karachi attack.”

Two Americans were killed in the a grenade attack in a church in Islamabad on March 17. In Wednesday’s bombing, 11 French nationals were among those killed.

Asked whether he saw the attack as part of a trend, Mr Boucher said obviously any of these attacks were of great concern. “They cause enormous harm to Americans, to in this case French and Pakistan nationals, but also to the interests of Pakistan. And we have worked very closely with President Musharraf, because he is as interested as anybody in ending this kind of violence in his country and putting Pakistan on a more moderate course.”

A statement issued after the joint working group meeting said US and Pakistan officials discussed a broad range of bilateral law-enforcement issues. It said cooperation between the two governments would be strengthened in counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, extradition, money laundering, trafficking in persons, demand reduction and drug abuse control, alternative development and poppy eradication, police and legal system reform, and issues related to the repatriation of Pakistani nationals detained in the United States in connection with immigration proceedings.

Pakistan is reportedly seeking the extradition from the US of a former Sindh chief minister and a former top bureaucrat who are wanted for alleged wrongdgoing.

The meeting was hosted by Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Rand Beers, Coordinator for Counter-terrorism Francis Taylor, Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca, and US Department of Justice Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz. The next meeting of the group will be held in about six months’ time.

Representatives of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency, National Crisis Management Centre and Anti-Narcotics Force participated in Wednesday’s meeting.