Analysis: US pulls diplomatic levers

Substantial economic aid is in the pipeline to Pakistan

By BBC diplomatic correspondent Barnaby Mason

The United States is using all the leverage it can to hold together the international coalition against terrorism.

The real problems of sustaining the coalition lie in the Middle East

In the case of Pakistan - critical to military operations in Afghanistan - there are all kinds of economic incentives.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell exchanged warm words with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf during his visit to Islamabad.

But he found it difficult to maintain the same atmosphere when he went on to India.

Incentives for Pakistan

Pakistan is at once the key member of the international coalition and the one in the worst economic state.

The United States has given the government many incentives to stay onside.

The lifting of US sanctions has not had a sizeable impact on India

It has lifted the sanctions it imposed on both Pakistan and India in 1998 when they tested nuclear weapons.

The separate sanctions related to General Musharraf's military coup are also set to go.

The United States has rescheduled Pakistani debt and voted for a new loan package from the International Monetary Fund.

Substantial economic aid is in the pipeline, all in addition to the effective end of Pakistan's pariah status.

The European Union has also given priority to proposed trade concessions that would allow Pakistan to increase sharply its clothing and textile exports.

Indian prickliness

Mr Powell did not have the same carrots to offer India.

The lifting of American sanctions did not have the same economic impact on a much bigger country.

And Indian prickliness over Kashmir showed how difficult it is to please both these neighbours.

The Indian government would like Washington to agree publicly that Pakistani support for cross-border terrorism is the root of the problem - and Mr Powell was not going to concede that.

Beyond South Asia, the United States has not had the same obvious chance to use economic leverage.

Middle East stumbling-block

The Russians were clearly keen to line up with the West in this crisis in any case, since the target was terrorism of the kind, they have argued, faces them in Chechnya.

Washington needs Saudi Arabia's support but cannot offer much in return

But the reward for Moscow has been a further toning-down of American and other western criticism of the heavy-handed tactics used by the Russian army there.

In the case of China, which has not opposed American air strikes in Afghanistan, reports from Washington suggest the Bush administration may be prepared to waive sanctions and supply some military spare parts to the Chinese.

But the real problems of sustaining the coalition lie in the Middle East.

For example, the United States needs Saudi Arabia's tacit political, if not military, support but cannot offer much in return.

The Saudi and other Arab rulers are threatened by the kind of Islamic extremism represented by Osama Bin Laden, but a close alliance with the Americans simply increases the threat.