US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Pakistan needs to take 'decisive steps' against Islamist militancy and that relations with the US have reached a turning point.
Mrs Clinton, the most senior US official to visit Pakistan since US forces killed the al Qaeda leader in a compound outside Islamabad this month, appears to be trying to smooth over strains, repeating that there was no evidence that any senior Pakistani officials had known of bin Laden's whereabouts.
But she also said she had asked Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani as well as army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to do more to fight militants.
'This was an especially important visit because we have reached a turning point,' a sombre Clinton told reporters after meeting Pakistani officials with chairman of US Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen.
'We look to Pakistan, to the government of Pakistan to take decisive steps in the days ahead.'
Mrs Clinton and other American officials in Islamabad declined to say what those steps were.
The discovery of bin Laden in a garrison town just 50km from the capital on 2 May raised fresh doubts about Pakistan's reliability as a US partner against militancy.
Clinton said Pakistani officials had told her 'someone, somewhere' had been providing support for bin Laden in Pakistan, but reiterated there was no evidence of any sort of complicity by senior government officials.
'We are trying to untangle the puzzle of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad,' she said. 'But I want to stress again, that we have absolutely no reason to believe that anyone in the highest level of the government knew that.'
Western officials have long accused Pakistan's intelligence services of playing a double game by fighting Islamist militants who pose a domestic threat, but protecting those who fight against US troops in Afghanistan.
