Islamabad:  Pakistan's new government has to focus on crucial issues like extremism, rising food prices and an energy crisis rather than the fate of Pervez Musharraf, a top US official said here today, indicating that Washington was still not ready to abandon the embattled President.

"President Musharraf isn't the issue right now, this is not the problem that Pakistan faces right now... The problems it faces are the bombings, suicide bombs, rising food prices, the energy difficulties," said US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher.

Musharraf is the President of Pakistan and the "US deals with him in that capacity", Boucher told a news conference here while replying to a question about Musharraf s role in the new dispensation that came into being after the general election in February.

Boucher, who spoke to the media shortly before concluding his three-day visit to Pakistan, said he had urged the country s leadership to focus on problems like countering extremism and terrorism, tackling spiralling food prices and overcoming a power shortage.

These issues were "more crucial" than the question of Musharraf s future, he said.

The US is trying to support the new government s efforts to tackle these problems and would continue to back efforts to fight terrorism, said Boucher, who met with Musharraf, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and former premier and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, a key ally of the ruling coalition.

Source : PTI