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U.S. General Due In Pakistan For Top-Level Talks
ISLAMABAD (News Agencies) - U.S. Central Command chief General Tommy R. Franks was due here Thursday on what has been billed as a familiarization visit amid mounting international concern over violence in South Asia.
A U.S. embassy spokesman said Franks would arrive in the late evening, a day before fresh U.N. sanctions against the Taliban Islamic militia in neighboring Afghanistan are due to take effect.
"He's just coming on a familiarization visit so it's not something we want to make a big deal about," he said, adding there was no connection between Franks' arrival and the sanctions.
"He'll make the usual military contacts - it's a military-to-military visit."
Pakistani military officials said Franks would meet military ruler and army chief General Pervez Musharraf, as well as the top brass of the navy and air force, during his three-day stay.
They said the talks would focus on nuclear issues, the ongoing row between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and the situation in war-torn Afghanistan.
The last senior U.S. general to visit Pakistan was Anthony Zinni, who arrived on August 20, 1998, to inform Islamabad that U.S. cruise missiles were flying overhead on their way to strike the suspected camps in Afghanistan of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.
Millionaire bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, escaped that attack but remains on the FBI's 10 most wanted men list.
He is also suspected of plotting the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen late last year, and Washington has warned it will attack his bases again if strong evidence is found against him.
As a veteran of the 1979-89 Afghan jihad against Soviet occupation, bin Laden is staying as a "guest" of the Taliban, who state there is no proof of his involvement in "terrorism".
Washington strongly backed a United Nations Security Council resolution passed last month, imposing more sanctions on the Taliban militia for its harboring of bin Laden.
The United States wants the Taliban to hand bin Laden over, and Washington has repeatedly asked Pakistan, the Taliban's closest ally, to help.
U.S. intelligence believes the Taliban and bin Laden are training Islamists to fight in places like Chechnya, Kashmir, Central Asia and the Philippines.
A Congress-backed independent commission last year accused Pakistan of supporting and offering a safe haven for these individuals, and urged President Bill Clinton to censure Islamabad.
Clinton has also tried to persuade Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty following its nuclear tests in May 1998 in response to similar detonations by India.
Musharraf has congratulated U.S. President-elect George W. Bush and expressed hope he would work with the Pakistani regime to "enhance our traditionally close and friendly ties and to strengthen global and regional peace."
Relations between the former Cold War allies have chilled since Pakistan's nuclear tests.
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