The next US president must halt missile strikes on insurgent targets in northwest Pakistan or risk failure in efforts to end militancy in the Muslim country, the prime minister warned Tuesday. Yousuf Raza Gilani said visiting US Gen. David Petraeus “looked convinced” when he warned him the strikes were inflaming anti-American sentiment, but that he got no guarantee that they would end. Gilani's remarks in an interview with The Associated Press underscore the challenge the next US president faces in shaping a policy to deal with the militant threat in nuclear-armed Pakistan and its new civilian leaders. They also revealed the rising strain the missile strikes have placed on relations between the two nations seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks forced them into an uneasy alliance. “No matter who the president of America will be, if he doesn't respect the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan ... anti-America sentiments and anti-West sentiment will be there,” Gilani said as U.S. voters chose between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain in the race for the White House. Over the last two months, the US has launched at least 17 strikes on militant targets in semiautonomous tribal belt on Pakistan's side of the Afghan border. The lawless region is home to scores of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters believed involved in attacks on American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, where violence is at its highest levels since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001. The missile strikes are widely seen as sign of increasing frustration in Washington at Pakistan's unwillingness or inability to tackle the threat emanating from the region, which is believed to be a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden. The strikes - and a highly unusual ground attack by US forces in September - have killed at least 168 people, including some top extremists but also many civilians, according to Pakistani officials. Gilani, seated in his heavily guarded residence atop a hill in the capital, Islamabad, at times looked frustrated as he said the attacks were “uniting the militants with the tribes. How can you fight a war without the support of the people?” he said. He said the US should cooperate with his country's military, sharing intelligence, to allow Pakistan to go after the targets itself. “Either they should trust us and they should work with us, otherwise, I think it's a futile exercise,” he said. He also said the missile strikes served as a distraction to Pakistan's own military operations against insurgents in its border regions. The army is currently in the midst of two major anti-insurgent operations in the northwest. “Their strategy is not coinciding with our strategy,” Gilani said. “Our strategy is to take one area at one time.” On Monday, Gilani and other Pakistan leaders held talks with Petraeus, who is making his first tour of the region since taking over U.S. Central Command last week, a post that puts him in charge of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He has met with President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, among other leaders and was expected to meet officials from the border region Tuesday. Gilani on Tuesday expressed hope that after the sessions with Petraeus and others in the US entourage that the missile strikes would end. “I think they'll stop it,” he said. “They didn't say no.” In an interview with CNN, Petraeus confirmed the criticism from Pakistan. “In fact, we got certain messages with each of those we talked to today and some of those were very clear and we have to take those on board,” CNN quoted Petraeus as saying. “The tone of the conversation today was very frank and very forthright, which is as it should be.” Underlining the threat facing Pakistan, the army said a suicide car bomber struck a security checkpoint near the northwestern town of Hangu on Tuesday, killing a member of the security forces and wounding seven other people. - AP __
