Yousuf Raza Gilani still Pak PM: US

[1]

The US has said it continues to work with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as it believes that he remains leader of the democratic government there.

"There was a court decision. He was given a 30-second sentence, I believe, and he remains the prime minister of Pakistan," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily news conference.

"And as such, we continue to work with him, and (Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan) Ambassador (Marc) Grossman did meet with him in Pakistan," Nuland said in response to a question.

Grossman during his trip to Islamabad met top Pak leaders including President Asif Ali Zardari and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, during which he discussed with them the bilateral relationship.

"With regard to reconciliation, obviously we talked bilaterally about where we are. They also talked about it in the core group meeting, Afghanistan, Pakistan. But I think you know that we have a situation where the Taliban have not decided whether they want to participate.''

"They're in a pause phase, so they know what they need to do if they want to move this forward," she said.

Nuland said that the meetings were productive, but they have got more work to do together. She said talks are still going on reopening of the supply routes which were closed by Pakistan in protest against the killing of 24 of its soldiers in a NATO cross border fire on November 26.

"It's going to take some more time and many more conversations before we are able to come to a common way forward on some of the issues that have been most difficult in the last period. And frankly, there weren't expectations on our side that we would have agreements," Nuland said.