Washington: As US President George W Bush prepares for possible meetings with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf during the UN session in September, US relations with Pakistan are under strain because of Musharraf's failure to end cross border terrorism against India, according to analyst John E Carbaugh.

"An increasing number of Bush administration officials are pressing for a tougher US stance with Pakistan," Carbaugh says, quoting "sources."

Carbaugh cites the views of many scholars who have expressed concern over Pakistani policies.

"Let us remember," writes Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Progrmame at the Centre for International Policy in Washington, "that Pakistan was the chief political and financial sponsor of the Taleban in Afghanistan from the beginning."

"Without a Taleban regime in Kabul, Afghanistan never would have become a safe haven for al-Qaida. Pakistan was, therefore, more than a little responsible for September 11.

Even after that attack, Islamabad turned against the Taleban only in response to intense pressure from the US. Pakistani forces were ineffectual in sealing the border with Afghanistan when US troops had Taleban and al-Qaida fighters on the run in late 2001, yet the Musharraf government refused to give the US the right of hot pursuit into Pakistani territory.

As a result, terrorist units regrouped in Pakistan's border provinces and to this day continue to harass US forces in Afghanistan," says Harrison.

PTI