Pak altered missiles to target India: US

The US has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying Americanmade missiles to expand its capability to strike land targets, a potential threat to India, according to senior US officials.

The charge, which set off a new outbreak of tensions between the US and Pakistan, was made in an unpublicised diplomatic protest in late June to the Prime Minister, Mr Yousaf Raza Gilani, and top Pakistani officials.

The accusation comes at a particularly delicate time, when the administration is asking Congress to approve $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan over the next five years, and when Washington is pressing a reluctant Pakistani military to focus its attentions on fighting the Taliban, rather than expanding its nuclear and conventional forces aimed at India.

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Obama offered Russia deal on Iran

President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s President in February suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defence system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long range weapons, American officials said on Monday.

The letter to President Dmitri A. Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago. It said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.

The officials who described the contents of the message requested anonymity because it has not been made public. While they said it did not offer a direct quid pro quo, the letter was intended to give Moscow incentive to join the US in a common front against Iran.

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