Pakistani leaders willing to negotiate with militants
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Faced with a sharp escalation of suicide bombings in urban areas, the leaders of Pakistan's new coalition government say they will negotiate with the militants believed to be orchestrating the attacks, and will use military force only as a last resort.
That talk has alarmed US officials, who fear it reflects a softening stance toward the militants just as President Pervez Musharraf has given the Bush administration a freer hand to strike at militants using pilotless Predator drones.
Many Pakistanis, however, are convinced that the surge in suicide bombings - 17 in the first 10 weeks of 2008 - is retaliation for three Predator strikes since the beginning of the year.
Speaking in separate interviews, the leaders of Pakistan's new government coalition, Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan
They said they were determined to set a different course from that of Musharraf, who has received generous military financial help of more than $10 billion from Washington for his support.
"We are dealing with our own people," said Sharif, who was twice prime minister in the 1990s.
"We will deal with them very sensibly. And when you have a problem in your own family, you don't kill your own family. You sit and talk."
Zardari said: "Obviously what they have been doing for the last eight years has not been working. Even a fool knows that."
The war against the insurgents has to be redefined, he said, as "Pakistan's war" for a public that has come to resent the conflict as being pushed on the country as part of a US agenda.
It should be dealt with by talks and the use of a beefed-up police force rather than the army, he said.
Washington opposed past negotiations because in its view, short-term peace deals between the militants and the Pakistani military were a sign of weakness and resulted in the militants' winning time to fortify themselves.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on a visit to Islamabad last month that talks with the militants were not helpful in the short term.
