Bhutto denied foreign security detail

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf allegedly barred the late Benazir Bhutto from hiring foreign bodyguards.

The Sunday Telegraph said Bhutto talked with security firms in London and the United States, but Musharraf would not let foreign contractors operate in Pakistan.

A spokeswoman for Blackwater USA confirmed it had been "approached to provide Prime Minister Bhutto's security, but an agreement was unfortunately never reached." She did not offer further details, the British newspaper said.

"She asked to bring in trained security personnel from abroad," Bhutto's U.S. spokesman, Mark Siegel, told the newspaper. "In fact she and her husband repeatedly tried to get visas for such protection, but they were denied by the government of Pakistan."

The U.S. government responded to an Oct. 19 bombing attack by providing Bhutto with intelligence about threats against her life, but was reluctant to push Musharraf on the security issue, U.S. spokesman Husain Haqqani said.