Hong Kong: Pakistan is failing to co-operate with the United States in its battle to crush the Taliban despite Washington's restraint over Islamabad's nuclear proliferation scandal, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in a report released today (March 10, 2004).

Wolfowitz presents a blunt assessment of its key war on terror ally in an interview with the weekly Asian magazine 'Far Eastern Economic Review', saying Pakistan was turning a blind eye to Taliban activity during a renewed drive to hunt down Islamic militants.

"The military is ... co-operating with (the United States in getting) al-Qaeda, but it's not co-operating with (getting) the Taliban," Wolfowitz said in the interview.

"There is a widespread kind of belief in Pakistan that the Americans want al-Qaeda, but Pakistan continues to turn a blind eye to support the Taliban," he said.

"That clearly is now an issue if you want to do (Afghan) elections in June. You need to wrap up some of these Taliban people, which is quite separate from al-Qaeda."