ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON - Pakistan can leave U.S. investigators in question the wives of Osama bin Laden, an official of the U.S. said, a decision that could start to stabilize relations between the piquant allies who have been severely strained by the assassination of the leader of al-Qaeda.
However, senior Pakistani officials in Islamabad said on Tuesday, no decision had been taken on the application of the United States.
Ben Laden was shot dead on May 2 in a Top-secret raid in Pakistani city north of Abbottabad, the embarrassment of Pakistan which has for years a most wanted man in the world on its soil denied.
The Government is under pressure to explain how the leader of al-Qaeda has been found in the city of Garrison, a short distance from the
Main military Academy and faces criticism at home on the perceived violation of sovereignty by the US commando team.
Pakistani cooperation is crucial to the fight against Islamic militants and restore stability in Afghanistan and the American administration has not hésitée to contain the fallout.
U.S. investigators, who have been searching a huge planque of material seized in the compound of high walls of Osama bin Laden, want to question his three wives as they seek to trace its movements and roll to its global network of activist.
"The Pakistani now appear willing to grant access." We hope that they lead you on the signals they send, "a familiar official U.S. with the case said in Washington."
No there was no immediate comment from the White House.
A Pakistani Government official denied that the questioned U.S. of women had been authorized, saying that investigators and had not yet completed their investigation.
"It is too soon and think about it," said the official, referring to the request of the United States to question women.
In Pakistan, said the three women, one of the Yemen and two of Saudi Arabia and their children, will be repatriated and Pakistan made contacts with their country, but they did not yet say that they would take them, said the official.
Discovery of Osama bin Laden has deepened suspicion ubiquitous Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency of Pakistan, which has a long history of contact with the militants, had links with the al-Qaeda leader, or some of its agents has done.
U.S. lawmakers have asked hard questions, with some claiming a cut in billions of U.S. dollars helps the Muslim countries of nuclear weapons.
But in the United States continued to accuse Pakistan of providing shelter to bin Laden.
"We believe that it is very important to maintain a relationship of cooperation with Pakistan, precisely because it is in our interest of national security to do so", White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.
Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Western Governments had no alternative to cooperate with Pakistan in the fight against Islamic militants.
"If we are to ensure long term peace and stability in Afghanistan and beyond, then we need a positive engagement with Pakistan, Rasmussen told the World Affairs Council in Atlanta Monday."
In a reminder of the struggle of Pakistan against al-Qaeda-linked militants, a bomb outside a court in the Northwest of Nowshera City killed a police woman.
"ABSURD".
Pakistan-US relations were already at a low after a string of diplomatic disputes of issues, including a large attack by a U.S. in March and the contractor Raymond Davis CIA drone aircraft, who fired two Pakistan in January.
Potentially more restless tension, a Pakistani television channel and a newspaper published what they said was the name of the Chief of station in Islamabad CIA infiltration.
The US authorities, said the name disclosed in the Pakistani media was wrong and the station chief would remain in his position.
They said that they believe that the leak was an attempt calculated to divert the attention of U.S. asked explanations on how bin Laden could be hidden for years in Pakistan.
Last year, after the head of the Pakistani ISI has been named in a civil case U.S. attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, it then at the head of the CIA Islamabad station was named by media Pakistani and forced to leave the country.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, in his first major speech since the assassination of bin Laden, rejected suggestions of incompetence or even complicity in concealing the leader of al-Qaeda.
"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," Gilani told Parliament Monday, saying it was disingenuous for anyone to accuse Pakistan of "being in cahoots" with al-Qaeda.
The US President Barack Obama, said Sunday that bin Laden probably had "a kind" of a network of support within Pakistan, but added that investigations by Pakistan and the United States is required to discover the nature of this support.
Main Pakistan opposition party called Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to resign on the violation of sovereignty by the US special forces who slipped in Afghanistan on helicopters to attack the compound of bin Laden.
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