US gears up for limited relationship with Pakistan

WASHINGTON: US officials believe the country's relationship with Pakistan has been seriously damaged and a counterterrorism alliance can survive only in a limited form, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

Citing unnamed US and Pakistani officials, the newspaper said officials acknowledge this deterioration will complicate the ability to launch attacks against Islamic extremists based in Pakistan and move supplies into Afghanistan.

US-Pakistani relations took a serious hit last month after a series of US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the border with Afghanistan.

A joint US-NATO investigation concluded that a disastrous spate of errors and botched communications led to the deaths. Pakistan has rejected the findings.

United States aid to Pakistan will also be reduced sharply, the paper noted.

"We've closed the chapter on the post-9/11 period," The Times quoted a senior US official as saying. "Pakistan has told us very clearly that they are re-evaluating the entire relationship."

American officials say the relationship will endure in some form, but that the contours will not be clear until Pakistan completes its wide-ranging review of the November incident in the coming weeks, the paper pointed out.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011