US Envoy: Some Militants Irreconcilable

Meanwhile, Pakistan's deposed chief justice visited the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in his first excursion since being freed from house arrest.

The new government's partners, who routed President Pervez Musharraf's loyalists to take control of Parliament, have suggested dialogue with pro-Taliban forces blamed for escalating violence. The approach has drawn criticism from Washington, which has provided about $10 billion in aid to Pakistan since 2001.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, meeting this week with the new leaders, said Thursday that while some hard-liners could be persuaded to participate in the democratic process, he did not see how it would be possible to hold discussions with some "irreconcilable" militants.

"I don't see how you can talk to these kinds of people," Negroponte said at a news conference in the southern city of Karachi.

Afterward, a senior lawmaker in former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party, which holds the second-largest number of parliamentary seats, sought to assure the Americans that the new government's counterterrorism policy would "not only prove feasible for Pakistan but also for them."

"Let us make it clear that we are going to hold talks only with reconcilable elements, and we believe that the irreconcilable elements, if any, will consequently be phased out," said lawmaker Sadiq ul-Farooq.

Washington has been trying to build bridges with Pakistan's new leaders, who promise to slash Musharraf's powers and review his U.S.-backed counterterrorism policies.

Asked Thursday whether he had come to Pakistan to "rescue" Musharraf, the longtime Washington ally who faces calls for resignation and threats of impeachment, Negroponte said the U.S. will respect whatever is decided by Pakistan's leaders.

"He is of course president of the country," Negroponte said. "Any debate ... with regard to the issue of his status is something that will have to be addressed by the internal Pakistani political process."

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.