The New Nation - Internet Edition

BBC News

The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said that any new government in Pakistan should be wary of holding talks with pro-Taleban insurgents.

Gates told the BBC the previous administration's efforts to negotiate with the militants had not worked out.

Opposition parties are uniting to form Pakistan's next government after faring well in last week's polls. President Pervez Musharraf's allies fared poorly. Speaking in Delhi, Gates said the polls had been bad for Musharraf.

But Gates said the US hoped to continue working with the man he described as the elected president of Pakistan.

President Musharraf was re-elected to the presidency last year in a parliamentary vote boycotted by opposition parties as unconstitutional.

The former general has been a key US ally in the "war on terror" but his domestic popularity has plummeted amid accusations of incompetence and authoritarianism.

The army has been locked in a faltering campaign against Islamist pro-Taleban militants based along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, particularly in the Waziristan region.

Mr Gates said a new government would have to face the reality that al-Qaeda militants and insurgents were operating along the frontier.

"Even the Musharraf government tried talking and doing deals in Waziristan. That didn't work out very well," he said.

"Maybe this new government in Pakistan will have to go through the same experience itself."

Opposition leaders have hinted they are willing to talk to the insurgents, with a view to drawing them into the political process.