US working hard to improve ties with Pakistan: Pentagon

ISLAMABAD: United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and his colleagues in the US government have been working hard to improve US-Pakistan relations since the Bin Laden operation.

This was stated in a clarification issued by the US Department of Defence on recent comments made by Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta in an interview with 60 Minutes. the Pentagon Press Secretary, George Little, said in a statement issued through the US embassy here on Sunday that in an interview with 60 Minutes several months ago, Secretary Panetta made clear his belief — which other senior US officials have also expressed — that Osama Bin Laden had some kind of support network within Pakistan.

He said the secretary indicated in the same interview that he has seen no evidence that Bin Laden was supported by the Pakistani government or that senior Pakistani officials knew he was hiding in the Abbottabad compound.