ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 8 (UPI) -- Pakistan and America must find "acceptable solutions to all problems," President Asif Ali Zardari said in his meeting with U.S. Special Envoy Marc Grossman.
Grossman, making his first trip since taking over as special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, met with Zardari and other top leaders at a time when U.S.-Pakistan relations remain deeply strained over the detention of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, accused in the Jan. 27 shooting deaths of two Pakistani men.
Zardari spokesman Farhatullah Babar quoted his president as saying the two countries need to remain focused to promote long-term strategic ties without being swayed by "misperceptions and some isolated incidents," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
"We have to find ways and means to find acceptable solutions to all problems," Zardari was quoted as telling Grossman.
The two countries are at an impasse in the Davis case, with Washington insisting he should be released because he has diplomatic immunity and Zardari's government saying only the courts can decided the issue.
Pakistan's Dawn newspaper said Grossman's most immediate job will be to "try and recover the dangerously strained Pakistan-U.S. ties" as mistrust and suspicion between the two sides had been growing even before the Davis case.
Grossman, in a meeting with a group of Pakistani newspaper editors, said the United States wants a democratic, stable and prosperous Pakistan free from the scourge of extremism and violence, APP reported.
Insisting that Davis has diplomatic immunity, Grossman said the issue should be "resolved as quickly as possible," APP reported.
