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Fight terrorism or be consumed by it, Biden tells Pakistan

United States Vice President Joe Biden told Pakistan that it risks being consumed by terrorism if it does not fight it, one week after a high-profile Pakistani politician was assassinated.

US Vice President Biden shakes hands with Pakistan's PM Gilani after their joint news conference at prime minister's residence in Islamabad
US Vice President Biden shakes hands with Pakistan's PM Gilani after their joint news conference at prime minister's residence in Islamabad Reuters
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“Societies that tolerate such actions wind up being consumed by those actions,” Biden said one week after Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was shot and killed.

Biden met President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani to discuss the US-Pakistan relationship, after meeting Afghan president Hamid Karzai in Kabul.

The United States has been ramping up the pressure on Pakistan to do more to crush Al-Qaeda and Taliban based in sanctuaries in the northwest of the country. Fighters use such bases to launch attacks into neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan has a tough time containing terror attacks, and the government also comes under criticism for working too closely with the US.

Biden also sought to reassure Pakistanis after talks with top leaders and senior military officials. "There are... some sections in Pakistani society and elsewhere that suggest America disrespects Islam and its followers," Biden told reporters at the prime minister's residence.

"We are not the enemies of Islam and we embrace those who practise that great religion in all our country," he added.

The meeting comes as at least 18 people including nine security officials were killed in a suicide bombing in the north-west of Pakistan, police say.

Pakistan won US praise after it mounted an offensive against homegrown Taliban extremists in the South Waziristan region in late 2009.

But a White House report to Congress in October stated that Pakistan had not confronted Afghanistan's Taliban.

The US vice president arrived hours after a US drone strike in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district which according to security officials, killed three suspected foreign militants.

Biden is expected to present an economic, military and intelligence package for Pakistan, to help it cope with the financial burden of its counter-terrorism measures.

The government partly blames the cost of fighting militancy for its huge fiscal deficit and fuel and energy shortages.

US officials have already promised non-military aid donations on top of its military assistance, such as a 7.5 billion dollar five-year package to help with flood recovery in the wake of last summer's devastation.
 

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