Pakistan to talk to U.S. over aid bill

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's government and its military leadership have agreed to present Washington with their common concerns about a U.S. aid bill which would link some aid to a commitment to fight terrorism, the prime minister's office said on Saturday.

"It was decided that the government of Pakistan will take up the controversial clauses of the bill with the U.S. government," Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's office said in a statement after a meeting with the president and military chiefs.

Critics of the bill, approved last week, say it violates Pakistani sovereignty and the army had voiced "serious concern" about its potential impact on national security.

President Asif Ali Zardari's fragile government had rejected opposition complaints that the bill undermined sovereignty, and the army's unusual public criticism of a diplomatic matter appeared to have opened a rift with the government.

But on Saturday, Zardari and Gilano met army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and main intelligence agency chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha to discuss the bill and there was "unanimity of views," Gilani's office said.

The Congress approved the bill last week to triple aid for Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year for the next five years.

But in an effort to address U.S. concerns that Pakistan's military may support militant groups, the bill stipulates conditions for security aid, among them that Pakistan must show commitment in fighting terrorism.

The bill also provides for an assessment of how effective the civilian government's control is over the military, including in the promotion of top military officials.

The prime minister's office said the country's response to the bill would be given at the end of a debate in parliament.

Analysts have not predicted any immediate show-down between the military, which has vowed to stay out of politics, and the government.

But the army criticism was seen as a potential boost for the opposition. The army has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 62 years of history.

Clauses in the bill require Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to certify that Pakistan is dismantling militant bases in its northwest, in the southwestern city of Quetta, where the U.S. administration believes Afghan Taliban leaders are hiding, as well as in Punjab province, where anti-India groups are based.

Clinton must also certify that Pakistan is preventing al Qaeda and other militant groups including the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was accused of last November's assault on the Indian city of Mumbai, from operating in Pakistan and attacking neighbors.

The bill also seeks Pakistani cooperation to dismantle nuclear supplier networks by offering "relevant information from or direct access to" Pakistanis associated with such networks.

That is a reference to disgraced nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan who ran a black market in atomic technology. Pakistan has declined to let foreign investigators question Khan.

(Editing by Robert Birsel and Robin Pomeroy)