US Envoy: Some Militants Irreconcilable

Negroponte's arrival in Pakistan this week angered some Pakistanis, who believe the visit was ill-timed. He and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher arrived Tuesday just as newly elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was taking his oath.

Newspaper editorials decried the visit as American "meddling," and protesters in at least three cities burned U.S. flags and waved banners demanding the envoys go home.

Negroponte told reporters he had "no hidden agenda" and that his visit had been planned for more than six weeks.

"There was no hidden agenda and certainly no desire to interfere or intervene in any way in political arrangements which are developing," Negroponte said.

Moments after Gilani's election Monday, he set free judges who were detained last year by Musharraf when the president sought to avert legal challenges to his disputed re-election.

Among those freed was the deposed chief justice, Iftikar Mohammed Chaudhry, who spent more than four months under house arrest.

Chaudhry emerged from his Islamabad home for the first time Thursday to visit Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who now leads the party.

Nazir Dhoki, a spokesman for the Pakistan People's Party, said Chaudhry went to "express condolences over the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto."

Bhutto died in a suicide bomb and gun attack in December.