Obama: Pakistan Must Release US Diplomat At Once

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says an American diplomat detained in Pakistan must be released at once.

The president cited the global system of diplomatic immunity in the case of Raymond Allen Davis, who has been held by Pakistani authorities since he fatally shot two Pakistanis in the eastern city of Lahore on Jan. 27.

"If they (diplomats) start being vulnerable to prosecution, that's untenable," Obama said at a news conference.

The U.S. says Davis, a former Special Forces soldier and an embassy worker, shot in self-defense when two armed men on a motorcycle tried to rob him and that his detention is illegal under international agreements covering diplomats.

U.S. officials have threatened to withhold billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan unless Davis is freed.