London, Islamabad row escalates

Pakistan summoned Britain's envoy in Islamabad Monday over comments by British Prime Minister David Cameron suggesting that Islamabad wasn't doing enough to fight terrorism, officials said.

Adam Thomson, the British high commissioner to Pakistan, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify remarks Cameron made during a visit to India last week, a Pakistani official said.

The prime minister said after a speech in Bangalore on Wednesday that Pakistan could not be permitted to "look both ways" in promoting the export of terror while publicly working for stability in the region.

The comments caused anger in Pakistan, and the country's spy chief canceled a trip to Britain in protest.

Later Monday, Cameron's spokeswoman said that the prime minister "stands by his remarks" but stressed that he was "referring to elements within Pakistan supporting terrorism, not the Pakistani government."

The spokeswoman insisted that there were "very good and strong" links between Britain and Pakistan on many levels.

"We want to continue to work very closely with Pakistan in the future," she said, adding that Cameron had acknowledged that Pakistan was "taking action against extremism."

However, criticism of the British prime minister's remarks is piling up even within his home country.

In an exclusive article for The Independent on Sunday, British shadow foreign secretary David Miliband accused Cameron of "chasing headlines."

"Cameron is right that terrorist groups have launched attacks from Pakistan. But that is only part of the picture. Pakistan has also been the victim of terror. But the prime minister, in attacking Pakistan for 'looking both ways,' did not tell this side of the story," Miliband wrote.

"A lot of people of Pakistani origin are hugely inflamed by this. They feel he (Cameron) is trying to curry favor with India," the Daily Mirror newspaper quoted Perry Barr, a Muslim member of Parliament for Birmingham, as saying.

Despite the escalated diplomatic row, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is due to arrive in Britain from France today for a visit lasting several days, and he is expected to meet Cameron in London on Friday.

Agencies