Pak demands drastic cut in CIA and US agents on its soil

The demand for scale back of its intelligence presence in Pakistan is the immediate fallout of a row between the two countries over the arrest of CIA officer Raymond Davis, New York Times reported.

Strangely, the Islamabad's clamour is not coming from the civilian government but personally has been ordered by the country's powerful Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the daily said quoting top US and Pakistani officials.

The Pakistani demand came as its intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha had four hours of meeting with the CIA Director Leon Panetta and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff here.

The meetings were described as "productive" by a CIA spokesman.
Though the spokesman Marie Harf said that the cooperation between the two agencies remained on "solid footing", the Pakistani General reportedly cut short his visit abruptly to return home.

Both the US and Pakistani officials did not give any reasons for Shuja curtailing his talks here.

Quoting Pakistani officials, NYT said that Kayani had asked for 25-40 per cent reductions in the number of US special operations troops in the country, most of whom are training the Paramilitary Frontier Corps in the troubled northwest region bordering Afghanistan, which is home to al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Pakistani officials say that about 335 American personnel - CIA operatives, contractors and special forces men - had been asked to leave Pakistan.