Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday that the Bajaur agency incident was regrettable and he would discuss the incident with the American officials during his visit to the United States.

Talking to journalists after his meeting with former U.S. president George Bush senior at the prime minister house Tuesday afternoon, Aziz said that it was an unfortunate event in which many innocent persons lost their lives and that was why the federal cabinet had expressed condolences and condemned this

However, he said, the U.S. relations with Pakistan are important and longstanding because Pakistan wants to engage the U. S. on many issues including war on terrorism.

Aziz said that he would discuss all important issues with the U. S administration to give boost to the Pakistan-U.S. ties during his visit.

To a question, Aziz appreciated the efforts made by the United Nations and its allied agencies for relief and rehabilitation activities and thanked the UN secretary general for appointing senior Bush as special envoy to raise more funds for the affectees.

"We are touched with Mr. Bush for taking interest and coming here to assist us in the rebuilding and hoped that his efforts will be fruitful in raising more funds," he said.

He said that the United Nations was a source of strength and Pakistan and U.N. were working closely with it to overcome the challenge.

The Pakistani prime minister said that 6.4 billion U.S. dollars had been pledged by the international community and there was need for their early realization to speed up reconstruction and relief activities.

Speaking on the occasion, Bush said that his role would be to expedite efforts in raising money for relief and reconstruction in Pakistan. He said that he would contact the international community to fulfill its pledges and raise more money for the affectees.

Bush said that he had met the officials of UN agencies who are working in Pakistan for the relief activities and get first-hand information about the activities from them.

Earlier in their talks, Aziz told Bush that the Pakistani government had decided to set up a disaster management relief agency in the country. He said that 23 billion rupees (one U.S. dollar is about 60 rupees) had so far been distributed among affectees and out of this amount 18 billion rupees had been given directly to the affected.

They also discussed modalities to realize the pledges made by the international community.

Source: Xinhua