Nobody in Pakistan Govt aware of bin Laden's stay: Clinton

In an effort to reconcile with Pakistan's leadership, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has cleared Islamabad of any suspected involvement in helping bin Laden’s stay in Abbottabad, while urging for decisive steps against Islamist militancy.

This was an especially important visit because we have reached a turning point, Clinton told reporters, after meeting the Pakistani officials with chairman of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. We look to Pakistan, to the government of Pakistan to take decisive steps in the days ahead.

Clinton, who was on a surprise visit to Pakistan on Friday, however, declined to disclose what these steps were.

The discovery of Osama-bin Laden in a town near Islamabad had raised apprehension about Pakistan as a reliable partner in Washington's pursuit of al Qaeda leaders.

US maintains that it had kept the plan of killing bin Laden a secret, because it feared that disclosing it to Islamabad would disrupt the plan.

We are trying to untangle the puzzle of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, she said. But I want to stress again, that we have absolutely no reason to believe that anyone in the highest level of the government knew that.

Clinton emphasized on the need for U.S to work with Pakistan, as the United States was attempting to split the Taliban in Afghanistan from al Qaeda, and encourage those militants to reconcile with the Afghan government.

The United States and Pakistan have worked together to kill or capture many ... terrorists here on Pakistani soil, she said. This could not have been done without close cooperation between our governments, our military and our intelligence agencies. But we both recognize there is still much more work required, and it is urgent.