Nuke discussion between US and Iran

US has said it would start conference with Iran over its nuclear program. The decision is has being seen as a further step toward the direct engagement with Iran that US President Barack Obama has promised.

It followed an call to Iran to join in a new round of talks, which would include Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. It also coincided with an unusual face of conciliation toward the United States by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, reports the New York Times.

Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in a talking in Isphahan that his government would welcome talks with the Obama administration, provided that the shift in American policy was "honest."

The Obama administration's choice is the latest in a series of gestures to Iran, ranging from Obama's videotaped New Year's greeting to the Iranian people three weeks ago to an impromptu encounter last week between an Iranian diplomat and a presidential envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke.

He also briefed them on the administration's broader Iran policy review, which is nearing completion, the State Department said. By showing a readiness to engage Iran, American officials said, the administration is trying to build support among allies like Germany and France, and more skeptical players, like Russia, so that if diplomatic efforts fail, it can marshal support for tougher sanctions against Tehran.

US and Russia to renew discussions after a decade

U.S. and Russia will reopen conference to reduce their nuclear weapons, a BBC report mentioned President Barack Obama and his Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as saying on Wednesday here, ahead of the G-20 economic summit which begins on Thursday.

The discussions will be the first such talks for more than a decade. The announcement came on the fringes of the G20 summit of world leaders which is convening in London.

The U.S. and Russia have also agreed to discuss "mutual international co-operation", the two presidents said.

Obama said earlier there were very real differences between Washington and Moscow, but that there was also a broad set of common interests.

After their meeting, Medvedev said that he viewed prospects for future bilateral relations "with optimism". Meanwhile, Medvedev invited his American counterpart to visit Moscow in July - an invitation Obama has accepted.

Pak could get $2.8 billion military support from U.S.

Pakistan could get $2.8 billion in military help from the U.S. in addition to the proposed $7.5 billion civilian help package extend over five years, a defense officer has been quoted as saying.

The executive, speaking on condition of secrecy, told the FOX News channel that the extra money would be spent on 'equipping, training, and building infrastructure directly related to counter insurgency operations'.

Gen. David Petraeus, who heads the U.S. Central Command, separately told the channel that the money would be provided under the 'Pakistani Counter-insurgency Capability Fund'.

The money would be disbursed over five years, with $400 million in 2009, $700 million in 2010 and thereafter, $575 million a year between 2011 and 2013.

Quoting unnamed U.S. officials, the channel said that the money would be spent in a way that would not give Pakistan a greater capacity to attack another country, such as India.

Unveiling his Afghanistan Pakistan policy Friday, U.S. President Barrack Obama said he would ask Congress to authorize $1.5 billion non-military aid for Pakistan every year for five years to enable it build up its infrastructure and institutions.

At the same time, he warned there would be no 'blank cheque' and that Pakistan would have to live up to its commitment in the war against terror.

Obama : US does not plan to put troops in Pakistan

US will go after Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan after consulting with Islamabad but does not aim to use combat troops on the ground there, President Barack Obama said in an interview.

"If we have a high-value target within our sights, after consulting with Pakistan, we're going after them," Obama said in an interview broadcast on CBS's "Face the Nation" program.

Asked if that meant putting US troops on the ground in Pakistan, Obama said: "No. Our plan does not change the recognition of Pakistan as a sovereign government. We need to work with them and through them to deal with Al Qaeda. But we have to hold them much more accountable."

Obama made his comments in an interview conducted on Friday, the day he announced a new war strategy for Afghanistan that called for the elimination of Al Qaeda militants he said were plotting attacks on the United States from the rough region along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier.

The plan called for another 4,000 US troops to help train the Afghan army, in addition to the 17,000 combat troops he ordered to Afghanistan ahead of elections in August. Spending on the conflict is expected to rise 60 percent from the current $2 billion per month, officials said.

"What we want to do is to refocus attention on Al-Qaeda," Obama said. "We are going to root out their networks, their bases. We are going to make sure that they cannot attack U.S. citizens, U.S. soil, U.S. interests and our allies' interests around the world," he said.

The approach seeks to make trust and improve ties with an ally that Washington has at times supported and at times ignored but now sees as critical in the fight against the militant group that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said.

To plant Al Qaeda, Obama said, the United States had to ensure it could not find a base in Afghanistan or Pakistan from which to organize attacks. He said Washington also needed to convince average Pakistanis that the struggle with extremists was not just a U.S. war.

"One of the concerns that we've had building up over the last several years is a notion, I think, among the average Pakistani, that this is somehow America's war and they are not invested," Obama said.