US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca is expected to meet the Taliban ambassador and opposition politicians during her visit to military-run Pakistan this week, sources said.
Afghan embassy sources said Rocca would meet Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef here during her first trip to Pakistan since assuming her post as top South Asia policy official with the Bush administration.
"The meeting is confirmed but no time has yet been fixed," embassy official Suhail Shaheen told AFP.
A US embassy spokeswoman could not confirm whether Rocca would meet the envoy of Afghanistan's fundamentalist Islamic regime.
Pakistan is one of only three countries which recognises the Taliban theocracy, and has been blamed for undermining a US-led United Nations arms embargo against its impoverished neighbour.
The militia is accused of fostering terrorism and drug trafficking and has refused to extradite one of the United States' most wanted men, indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden.
A Pakistani foreign ministry official said Rocca would visit Afghan refugee camps near the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday.
Members of Pakistan's opposition Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy said Rocca would have dinner with political leaders from the parliament that was disbanded after the 1999 military coup.
A reception dinner at the US ambassador's house later Monday would be attended by prominent academics and religious and political party leaders, they said.
The US embassy spokeswoman could not reveal who would be at the dinner.
Rocca walked across the Indian border to the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday, having earlier visited India and Nepal.
Her discussions with top officials will provide the raw material for a State Department review of policy toward South Asia, with US-Pakistan relations the most problematic, after Afghanistan.
Bilateral ties have been dogged by US sanctions over Islamabad's nuclear programme, the military coup here in October 1999 and Pakistan's support for the Taliban.
The military-led government under President Pervez Musharraf is concerned that Washington is fostering closer ties with India at the expense of its old Cold War alliance with Pakistan.
Rocca has indicated that Washington may ease sanctions imposed against South Asian rivals India and Pakistan over their nuclear programmes which culminated in tit-for-tat tests in 1998.
Pakistan has been subject to additional US economic and military curbs since the bloodless coup here almost two years ago.
She will meet Musharraf and Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on Tuesday -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
