Bush Says Pakistan Cannot Expect Nuclear Deal Like One With India

By ELISABETH BUMILLER
and CARLOTTA GALL

ISLAMABAD, March 4 -- President Bush made clear today that Pakistan should not expect anytime soon a civilian nuclear agreement like the one the United States reached only days ago with India, and he bluntly said that the two archrivals on the subcontinent cannot be compared to each other.

Mr. Bush said that he and Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, had discussed a civilian nuclear program for Pakistan during talks this morning.

“I explained that Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and different histories," Mr. Bush said at a joint outdoor news conference with Mr. Musharraf on the grounds of the presidential palace, Aiwan-e-Sadr. “So as we proceed forward, our strategy will take in effect those well-known differences."

Mr. Bush had never been expected to endorse a nuclear agreement with Pakistan, the country of A.Q Khan, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program who has confessed to running the largest illegal nuclear proliferation network in history. But it was striking that the president spoke so directly as his host, Mr. Musharraf, stood at his side.

Critics of Mr. Bush’s nuclear agreement with India say that it will only encourage other nations to demand similar arrangements. Under the terms of the Indian pact, the United States would end a decades-long moratorium on sales of nuclear fuel and reactor components and India would separate its civilian and military nuclear programs, and open the civilian facilities to international inspections.

Before Mr. Bush’s remarks, administration officials had said that Mr. Musharraf had no chance of making such a deal because proliferation and terrorism remain concerns in Pakistan.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, struggled to answer local journalists who asked if Pakistan had not been left empty-handed after the visit. Speaking at a news briefing this afternoon to release the joint statement issued by both presidents, he said Mr. Musharraf had pressed the case for civil nuclear cooperation, since Pakistan had urgent energy needs. "These things take a long time," he said. President Bush had hinted at something, he said, but he declined to explain further.

Mr. Bush nonetheless strongly supported Mr. Musharraf’s efforts in combating militants, even though Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, are believed to still be hiding in Pakistan near the Afghan border.

”Part of my mission today was to determine whether or not the president is as committed as he has been in the past to bringing these terrorists to justice, and he is," Mr. Bush said. “He understands the stakes, he understands the responsibility and he understands the need to make sure our strategy is able to defeat the enemy."

Mr. Bush and Mr. Musharraf made their remarks on the serene lawn of Aiwan-e-Sadr, with ducks splashing in a flower-filled pool in the background, as the capital around them remained in an effective 24-hour lockdown. Security was intense for the first visit of an American president in six years, and the first by Mr. Bush, who was in essence traveling to Mr. bin Laden’s backyard two days after a suicide bombing attack in the southern city of Karachi left four dead, including an American Embassy employee.

Mr. Musharraf said he had expressed Pakistan’s "deepest regrets" in his talks with Mr. Bush about the bombing, which he said was "very viciously" timed to spoil Mr. Bush’s visit. Mr. Bush said that he sent his condolences to the family of David Foy, the embassy employee killed in the attack, as well as to the families of the Pakistanis who died.

”We’re not going to back down in the face of these killers," Mr. Bush said. “We’ll fight this war and we will win this war together."

Mr. Kasuri said that Mr. Musharraf had made a "comprehensive and telling response" to American concerns of Pakistan's commitment to fighting terrorism. "They had a level of discussion I had not seen before," he said, adding that Mr. Musharraf shared intelligence and documentary evidence with Mr. Bush. Pakistan had had to deal with 30,000 foreign fighters passing through from Afghanistan over the years, had more troops in the border areas than foreign and Afghan forces together on the other side, and had lost 600 soldiers in fighting in Waziristan, he said.

Mr. Bush, who said only last week in Washington that Pakistan still has some distance to travel on the road to democracy, made a gentle reference today to the need for democratic advances in the country, saying that elections scheduled for next year need to be open and honest. Mr. Musharraf, who seized power in 1999 in a bloodless coup, had promised to give up his military uniform in 2004, but changed the constitution so that he could hold both his army post and the presidency until 2007.

Throughout the day, the streets of Islamabad were peaceful, with the main rally planned for the adjoining city of Rawalpindi curtailed after the political leader Imran Khan was placed under house arrest.

But people in Islamabad showed a lack of excitement over the visit and did not glance at the live coverage of the news conference held by the two presidents on television in the shopping mall.

“I do not think the visit will make much difference," said Naser Abbasy, 37, who runs a clothes store in Islamabad.

His brother, Rashid Mehmud Abbasy, 35, was wearing a black armband in protest of Mr. Bush’s visit. “It is a protest, because of all the atrocities against Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere," he said.

It is not about the president, but his policies, he said. The Muslim leaders had called on supporters to wear black armbands, he said.

But Mr. Abbasy said the visit would be beneficial if it gave Mr. Bush a better understanding of the views of Pakistanis. “He gave a lot to India, despite knowing that we do not get on well," he said. “So he should support us equally."

Middle class shoppers were more ready to see the good in the visit, even if the security lockdown had caused irritation. “That kind of recognition is good," said Ambreen Mirza, 28, a psychologist shopping for DVD’s. But she voiced the reservations that some people feel. “Most people dislike his policies," she said. “Pakistanis were gripped by a fear that the U.S. is friend now but one that we will lose, which has happened before."

Resentment against the cartoons in some Western publications depicting the Prophet Muhammad was still uppermost in people’s minds.

“In all my life I never heard of insults being made to the Prophet," said Muhammad Pervez, 55, sitting drinking tea with a shopkeeper. “We respect the Holy Books of other religions, so it is unimaginable to insult our prophet and out book. He is so powerful, President Bush could say something to stop the cartoons or punish those responsible. So our dislike for him has grown because of this cartoon incident."