WASHINGTON, Dec 4: Afghan President Hamid Karzai once told a US Senate delegation that the Pakistani president felt “lonely, threatened and under siege” and urged the senators to secure strong US support for Asif Ali Zardari, says a cable released by WikiLeaks.

According to another cable, army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani told US officials soon after President Barack Obama took charge of the White House that his forces would retaliate if India attacked Pakistan in retaliation for a terrorist attack on its territory.

In a meeting with Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham in Dec 2008, Mr Karzai stressed the importance of US support for the Pakistan president, calling Mr Zardari “a good man who wants to free his country from extremists”.

The Afghan president noted that he had an excellent relationship with Mr Zardari and felt the two had a special rapport, adding that “never in 60 years of Pakistan's history have we had such good bilateral relations”.

Mr Karzai described how, when he arrived in Istanbul for trilateral talks in Dec 2008, Mr Zardari called him directly and asked to meet him privately before their official meeting the following day.

Mr Zardari came to Mr Karzai's room where they chatted over dinner for hours, “covering all topics imaginable”.

Mr Zardari believed he received too little support from the international community, the Afghan president said. Mr Karzai explained that India was still wary because of historic enmity with Pakistan; Russia withheld its support because Pakistan had helped the Afghans defeat the Soviets; China disapproved of Mr Zardari's close relationship with the US; and the Arab countries wouldn't support him because he wasn't “one of them”.

Mr Karzai urged the senators: “America is the only place he can turn -- help him. Give him all you can; forget his past.”

KAYANI'S WARNING:

During a meeting with US Central Command chief Gen David Petraeus in Islamabad on Jan 24 last year, just four days after Barack Obama took over as President, Gen Kayani said that Pakistan was exercising restraint in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

“Gen Kayani said he was going to exercise restraint with India, but would respond to an Indian attack,” the cable says.

Gen Petraeus said: “The most important threat to Pakistan was on the western border and internally. Terrorists were an existential threat to Pakistan.”