Kerry presents US demands to Pakistan

US officials have increased pressure on Pakistan since the May. 2 American raid in Abbottabad - a northwest Pakistan garrison town where bin-Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs. But they also seem to be trying to balance their anger, aware of the risk of wholly severing ties with the nuclear-armed country. Pakistan's cooperation is considered vital to ending the war in Afghanistan.

Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is the first American emissary to visit Pakistan since the raid. Known to be a friend of Pakistan, what he is told by Pakistani army and civilian leaders could be key to American policy going forward.

Kerry arrived late Sunday and went quickly to see army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, handing him the list of US demands, according to a Pakistani government official.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity and declined to give more details because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The US has long pressed Pakistan to take action against several powerful Afghan Taleban factions sheltering on its soil. The leader of the Afghan insurgency, Mullah Omar, is widely believed to be in the southwest Pakistani province of Baluchistan, and allegations he is being harbored by the country have been strengthened since the death of Bin Laden.

Bin Laden is believed to have lived in a large compound in Abbottabad for years, not far from Pakistan's premier military academy. Pakistani civilian and military leaders deny knowing where Bin Laden was and have called the US raid a violation of their country's sovereignty.

Kayani told Kerry his soldiers have "intense feelings" about the raid, in apparent reference to anger and humiliation here that Washington did not tell the army in advance about helicopter-borne raid, and the fact it was unable to stop the incursion; Kazinform cites Arab News.

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