Washington, Apr 07: The United States has said it has no immediate plans to send its forces into Pakistan to deal with al Qaeda and other terrorists. ''That's frankly, I think that's an eventuality that fortunately, we don't have to deal with at this point,'' state department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters yesterday.

He was responding to questions about observations made by US ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad that the US may move against terrorists based in Pakistan because America could not allow ''terrorist sanctuaries'' in Pakistan to ''fester indefinitely''.
Pakistan denounced the comments as ''harmful.''

Ereli said the US has had a ''good dialogue'' with Pakistan on the subject of moving against terrorist elements operating on its territory.
''I think we've seen in the last several weeks, months, even concerted and courageous actions by Pakistani forces against those elements. These actions have involved the loss of considerable Pakistani life, for which the secretary expressed appreciation in his recent trip to Pakistan.'' He said it was important to note that ''this is going to be an ongoing effort, that there are deep-rooted and committed terrorists in that part of the world who need to be acted against.'' ''Pakistan is doing that. We appreciate that, and we'll continue to work with them in any way that we can to help support that effort. It's not a question of now or never, it's a question of we're both in this for the long haul.''
Bureau Report