The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Islamabad

Just a month after coming to power, President Asif Ali Zardari risks losing the support of Pakistan's powerful military establishment with a string of foreign policy gaffes, analysts and sources say.

From saying that nuclear archfoe India has "never been a threat" to reportedly admitting a deal on US missile strikes against militants, analysts say the new civilian leader's comments will cause concern in the army. As the widower of revered former premier Benazir Bhutto, Zardari also raised eyebrows in this conservative Islamic nation when he called Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin "gorgeous" in a recent meeting. But experts said it was the reference to nuclear-armed India in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that would most alarm the generals-who have been suspicious of Zardari since his wife's graft-tainted governments in the 1990s.