DATE=3/26/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON - PAKISTAN (S-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260616
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: White House officials are giving a mixed
assessment of President Clinton's meeting in Islamabad
Saturday with Pakistani military leader General Pervez
Musharraf. VOA'S David Gollust reports from Geneva
where Mr. Clinton is preparing to meet with Syrian
President Hafez Al-Assad.
TEXT: A senior administration official says General
Musharraf told the president he does not intend to
hold power for long but would not give a specific date
for an end to military rule.
Mr. Clinton had pressed for a timetable for a return
to democracy in both his meeting with the general who
seized power last October and in a broadcast message
to the Pakistani people.
The senior official who spoke to reporters on the
president's flight to Geneva said General Musharraf
was candid and unpretentious in the hour and a half
meeting and while he did not elaborate, he said the
military leader accepted a lot of the goals Mr.
Clinton set forth.
The official said General Musharraf acknowledged that
Osama Bin Laden, the Afghan based Muslim extremist
blamed for anti-U-S terrorist acts, is a serious
problem and that he would make significant efforts to
bring him to justice. But he said it is disturbing
that General Musharraf has twice postponed a promised
trip to Afghanistan to take up the issue of Bin Laden
directly with Afghanistan's Taleban leadership.
(Signed)
NEB/DAG/PLM
26-Mar-2000 06:14 AM EDT (26-Mar-2000 1114 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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