WASHINGTON: The White House says President Barack Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari discussed terrorism and Pakistan's economy in a short meeting Friday. Zardari was in Washington to attend a memorial service for Richard Holbrooke, who was Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon says that because Zardari is on a private visit, his meeting with Obama was not as detailed on issues of military cooperation and counterterror as it might otherwise have been. The White House says the two leaders will have other opportunities for broader discussions this year. Obama plans to travel to Pakistan, although a date for his visit has not been set. Donilon says the two leaders also discussed Pakistan's blasphemy laws that stipulate death for people who insult Islam. A small pool of photographers was ushered into the Oval Office to record the meeting, but the two presidents made no substantive remarks. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also in the room. The presidential-level talks follow Vice President Joe Biden's trip to Islamabad this week, which saw him deliver a bold message of support for Pakistan. The vice president said that militancy in Pakistan was a threat to both countries, and he referred to the killing last week of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was shot dead by his bodyguard over his outspoken opposition to strict blasphemy laws. Contacts between high-level US and Pakistani officials frequently include discussions on the issue of extremist sanctuaries in lawless areas alongside the Pakistan-Afghan border. A senior administration official said that Biden brought up the issue in his talks in Pakistan, the latest instance of US pressure for the Pakistani government to do more to tackle home grown extremism. “What we've seen over the past year is a significant effort by Pakistan against a number of extremist groups,” the official told reporters as Biden flew home to Washington Thursday. But the official noted that Obama said when he unveiled a review of Pakistan and Afghan strategy late last year that “it's still not enough, and we hope to see more.” But the official added that Biden had concluded that “increasingly there's an understanding and an awareness in Pakistan that at the end of the day, extremism is a problem that we both confront.” Holbrooke, a larger-than-life diplomat who helped broker peace in the Balkans a decade ago, was credited in Pakistan with drawing international attention to the humanitarian disaster of massive floods last year.
