Hillary Clinton was unable to get Islamabad to reconsider its decision to boycott a crucial meeting on Afghanistan.
A week after Pakistan-US ties plunged to a new low after a NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today offered her personal condolences to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani but was unable to get Islamabad to reconsider its decision to boycott a crucial meeting on Afghanistan.
Clinton telephoned Gilani this evening and "conveyed her personal condolences on the deaths of Pakistani soldiers", said a statement issued by the Prime Minister's House.
Clinton said the "attack was not intentional" and asked Pakistan to "wait for the outcome of the investigation" into the incident.
In a bid to address concerns raised by Islamabad over what Pakistani military officials have described as an "unprovoked act of blatant aggression", Clinton said the US has the "highest regard for Pakistan's sovereignty".
She said: "This incident should not be allowed to jeopardise the bilateral relationship. Pakistan and US have common interests".
Clinton raised with Gilani the issue of Pakistan's participation in the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan to be held on December 5.
Gilani told her that the Parliamentary Committee on National Security had supported the cabinet's decision not to participate in the Bonn Conference.
Pakistan had played a positive role for peace and stability in the region and made many sacrifices in fighting terrorism, he said.
Pakistan's parliament was "seized of the matter of terms of cooperation with the US", he told Clinton.
"This will ensure national ownership and clarity about the relationship," Gilani said.
Pakistan responded angrily to the attack by NATO aircraft on two military border posts that killed 24 soldiers, including two officers, last Saturday.
The government closed all NATO supply routes and asked the US to vacate Shamsi airbase, reportedly used by CIA-operated drones, by December 11.
Pakistan was expected to play a key role in the Bonn Conference, which is expected to discuss the future of Afghanistan and an endgame in the war-torn country.
Gilani yesterday called for a comprehensive review of Pakistan's cooperation with the US and said troops had been instructed to respond "with full force" to any further act of aggression.
"Clearly, there is a limit to our patience. Cooperation cannot be a one-way street," Gilani told the Parliamentary Committee on National Security yesterday.
The "dastardly" attack was a "grave infringement of Pakistan's territorial frontiers" by NATO and would "definitely compel us to revisit our national security paradigm", he said.
The Defence Committee of the Cabinet, the highest decision-making body on security issues, has already decided that the government will "undertake a complete review of all programmes, activities and cooperative arrangements" with the United States, NATO and ISAF, including "diplomatic, political, military and intelligence" cooperation.
Over the past two days, US and Pakistani military officials have traded charges over the possible causes of the deadly air strike by the NATO aircraft.
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