White House: Obama errs on Pakistan action

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The Bush administration Wednesday rejected a suggestion by a Democratic presidential hopeful that U.S. troops might have to clean out safe havens in Pakistan.

Speaking in Washington, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois said U.S. aid to Pakistan should be linked to Pakistani action against al-Qaida in the mountainous tribal areas, and that if the Pakistanis don't act, the United States should and would if he became president.

"Let me just say we think that our approach to Pakistan is one that not only respects the sovereignty of Pakistan as a sovereign government, but is also designed to work in a way where we are working in cooperation with the local government," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. "So we think that our policy and our approach is the right one."

Though he said the White House would not comment on Obama's statement, Snow said "our view (is) that we keep all options open if there's actionable intelligence (of al-Qaida targets), which says that we keep the options open. It does ... not preclude working with the local government.