Obama holds meeting with Clinton, Holbrooke on Pak issue

With the Taliban just 100 km away from Islamabad, US President Barack Obama has held a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke to take stock of the situation. "We're going to work with the government of Pakistan to halt the advances of the Taliban. We're trying to get more details about what actually is going on there," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, confirming about Friday's meeting.

Stating that the US is very concerned about what's going on in Pakistan, Wood said: "We call on the government and the military to take strong and aggressive and decisive action to deal with the extremists that threaten the country, and the region." Observing that the situation in Pakistan is very difficult on the ground, Wood said the US and the international community; have to help Pakistan meet these threats. "But what's important is that Pakistan take the measures necessary to deal with the threat it faces. They need to take very decisive action to deal with these elements. These elements are a threat not only to Pakistan's internal security, but to its neighbours, specially Afghanistan," he said.

The US believes that Pakistan is facing a serious threat from the extremists, he said, adding, "This threat is also one that impacts our security interests. What's really important here, is that this is a huge threat to the government of Pakistan and its society. And it needs to be dealt with. I think the Pakistanis realise that. What the government has said is that it understands the threat; it's committed to dealing with it. What's important are actions. We want to see actions," he stated.

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