WASHINGTON, Jan 20: Pakistan's envoy to the United States has urged America to use diplomacy to work out differences with Iran because military action could destabilize the entire region.

Ambassador Jehangir Karamat said he believed the possibility of US action against Iran was 'far-fetched' but speculated that recent talk of such an option was intended to pressure Iran into behaving, especially during and after Iraq's crucial January 30 election.

At a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, the ambassador also reviewed Pakistan's relations with the United States and responded to questions about the war on terror and the illegal nuclear black market activities of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Asked if Pakistan would allow international nuclear experts to interrogate Dr Khan, Ambassador Karamat said Pakistani law-enforcement experts trained in the intricacies on nuclear proliferation issue were quite capable of handling the matter.

He assured American journalists that Dr Khan's debriefing would continue and Pakistan would do its best to help the international community unravel this network of nuclear proliferators.

The ambassador said Pakistan also had intensified its efforts to catch Taliban and Al Qaeda fugitives hiding along its border with Afghanistan. He said the local Pukhtun tribes were cooperating with the Pakistani military in catching these fugitives, and Pakistan's actions had also been appreciated by the coalition forces and the US military command in Afghanistan. Recently, he said, the Afghan government had also acknowledged that actions taken by Pakistan allowed it to hold peaceful elections in Afghanistan.

Much of the discussion, however, focused on an article that had appeared in theNew Yorkermagazine reporting that the United States had conducted secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets.

The article, by an award-winning reporter, Seymour Hersh, said that secret missions had been under way at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites.

Although US officials had described this article as 'incorrect' and 'riddled with mistakes', President George W. Bush said on Monday Washington would not rule out military action against Iran if it was not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons programme.

Ambassador Karamat said this approach would have negative consequences for the entire region. He endorsed efforts by Britain, France and Germany to negotiate a deal to end Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The ambassador expressed concern that 'one of the dreadful fallouts' of the Iraqi election could be a civil war.

Gen. Karamat said he understood why the US, which has 150,000 troops in Iraq, would not want outside elements to enter Iraq and strengthen the insurgency. But while 'there may be posturing and a lot of pressurizing' on Iran, it seems clear from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearing on Tuesday the Bush administration would focus on diplomacy in its second term, he said.