ISLAMABAD: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the "long history of hostilities" between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the difficult conditions on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan are some of the factors hindering Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's fight against terrorism.

In a briefing here on Saturday to correspondents accompanying U.S. President George W. Bush, Ms. Rice confirmed that Mr. Bush raised the issue of cross-border infiltration and alleged militant training camps in Pakistan with Gen. Musharraf.

However, unlike Mr. Bush, who had said that Pakistan needed to do a "lot more" to take on the Al-Qaeda, Ms. Rice praised Gen. Musharraf for his campaign against terrorists.

`Just not possible'

Asserting that a civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan was "just not possible," Ms. Rice said history and the situation are "just not there on the Pakistani side." "But we want to try and pursue energy development with Pakistan; we talked about clean coal technology as another direction to go. But nuclear energy has a particular character, given both the energy possibilities and the proliferation concerns."

Ms. Rice said the policy and approach of the U.S. towards South Asia and Afghanistan was very much shaped by September 11th and the war on terror. At the time of 9/11 Pakistan was very, very close to losing the grip on extremism and very close to Talibanisation.

Without getting into the issue of the uniform of Gen. Musharraf, Ms. Rice said Pakistan had a road ahead of it in terms of democratic development. The best thing Washington could do was to speak faithfully in favour of free and fair elections in 2007.

On Pakistan's fight against extremists in the tribal areas, Ms. Rice said it was not easy as the region had never been controlled.

"The British didn't control it; the Pakistanis have never controlled it. And I think that the Afghans understand that, but they, like everybody, are suffering from the fact that this is a region that is producing a lot of violence and has been an area in which terrorists have operated."

Energy needs

On Pakistan's energy needs, Ms. Rice said U.S. Energy Secretary Bodman would be in the country shortly for talks on the subject. "We had some interesting discussion today at a lunch about biomass, and about the possibilities of using ethanol. There are a lot of technological ways to pursue the energy needs, but civil nuclear just isn't possible."

To a question on sensitivities in Pakistan over the nuclear deal with India, Ms. Rice said the Bush administration worked very hard to de-hyphenate relationship with India and Pakistan.

"These are very different places, with different histories, different sets of problems, different prospects. And so when you have a particular deal with India that moves in a particular direction because of India's long history of protecting nuclear technology, you have that deal. But with the Pakistanis, you can have a quite different approach to the energy problem," she said.

Ms. Rice said nobody in Pakistan has been "prickly" during the visit about anything and that it had been a problem solving, warm, and cooperative trip.

"I think the Pakistanis appreciate very much that the President has taken time and been here for an extended period of time," the Secretary of State pointed out.

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