BBC : Bush 'unaware' of Pakistan threat

Bush 'unaware' of Pakistan threat

BBC News | September 22, 2006

US President George W Bush has said he was "taken aback" by allegations by Pakistan's president that the US threatened to bomb Pakistan in 2001.

In a joint press conference after the two leaders met at the White House, Mr Bush said the first he had heard of the issue was in the day's media reports.

Mr Bush and President Pervez Musharraf emphasised their trust in each other.

Pakistan crucially supported the US in its war against Afghanistan's Taleban, which Islamabad had previously backed.

In excepts from an interview with CBS released on Thursday, Mr Musharraf said the US had threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" unless it joined the fight against al-Qaeda.

He said the warning had been delivered by former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Pakistan's intelligence director.

At the press conference, where Mr Bush spoke first, the US president said he knew of no such conversation.

In his response to a reporter's question on the subject, the Pakistani president said, to laughter, that he was "honour bound" with his publisher not to discuss details of his autobiography due out next week.

Some analysts say the timing of his comments on CBS may be an attempt to generate interest in the book.

Tribal deal

But the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says that, in the CBS interview, Gen Musharraf was deliberately distancing himself from the White House in the face of intense pressure within Pakistan over his close ties to Washington.

The Pakistani leader said a recent peace agreement between his government and tribes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was not a deal with the Taleban.

"This deal is against the Taliban. This deal is with the tribal elders," Mr Musharraf said.

Mr Musharraf also stressed that the two leaders had discussed a push for Middle East peace - something Mr Bush did not mention.