US says it will continue aid to Pakistan

Notwithstanding strains in ties with Pakistan over the Osama issue, the United States on Wednesday said it will continue to provide financial aid to Islamabad, pointing out that the country was still facing the scourge of terrorism.

"I think our view is that aid has paid dividends and will continue to pay dividends. This is assistance that is in both Pakistan's long-term interest as well as the United States' national interests and security interests," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told medipersons.

"We believe it is a vital cooperation. We have shared goals. We are both affected by scourge of extremism. The vast majority of the Al Qaeda and bin Laden's victims were Muslim. Pakistan has suffered grievous losses from al-Qaeda attacks. So we believe that this is a shared struggle," he said.

"We're continuing to work with them. We, again, may not see eye to eye on how to approach every issue, but we're going to continue to work with Pakistan and we believe it's in the best interest of our nation to do so," Toner said.

Acknowledging that the killing of bin Laden has raised questions, Toner said at this point of time, US aid would continue.

"What happened has raised questions. We've said we've raised those questions with the Pakistani authorities. I don't want to speculate beyond that," he said.