Bush Rebuffs Pakistan's Plea For Nukes

President Bush praised Pakistan's fight against terrorism as unfaltering Saturday but turned down an appeal for the same civilian nuclear help the United States intends to give India, this country's archrival.

"Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and different histories," Mr. Bush said at a news conference with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The White House said that was a diplomatic way of saying no, at least not now.

Mr. Bush and Musharraf renewed their war-on-terror alliance in a news conference at the presidential palace, in front of floating pots of flowers in a reflecting pool and quacking ducks. Fears of terrorism brought a tight security clamp and limited Mr. Bush's movements to the palace and the heavily guarded diplomatic compound that houses the U.S. Embassy.

At the news conference, President Bush called Musharraf "our strong friend and ally" and called the U.S.'s relationship with Pakistan "a strategic partnership," reports CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's army retaliated with helicopter gunships and artillery after pro-Taliban tribesmen clashed with security forces near the Afghan border. At least 46 militants and three soldiers were killed, the army spokesman said.

Intercepts of radio communications between militants involved in the fighting Saturday in the towns of Miran Shah and Mir Ali in North Waziristan tribal region suggested 80 or more fighters had died, security and intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to comment to media.

Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the army spokesman, said 25 militants were killed in Miran Shah and 21 in Mir Ali, but added that the toll could be higher than that. Three security forces also died and about 10 were injured.

After visiting three nations in South Asia, Mr. Bush departed the country in much the same way he arrived -- after dark aboard Air Force One, with its lights off and window shades drawn.

Mr. Bush was buoyant about the trip, saying his stops in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan had enhanced U.S. security.

But the journey could cause some headaches for the president. The visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan served as reminders that Osama bin Laden remained at large, years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Also, the nuclear assistance deal with India raised questions about rewarding a country that had defied world pleas not to build nuclear weapons, and must be approved by a skeptical Congress.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Indian agreement came up in Mr. Bush's talks with Musharraf, but that the time was not right for such a deal with Pakistan. Acknowledging that Pakistan has energy needs, Rice said "we can address energy needs on different terms."

Two years ago Pakistan's leading nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan, was exposed as the chief of a lucrative black market in weapons technology that supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea. The government denied any knowledge of his proliferation activities.

Anti-American sentiment runs deep in this Muslim county, inflamed by the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a U.S. missile strike in January in a village in northwestern Pakistan that killed 13 residents. It had been intended to kill al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, but he apparently wasn't there.

A day after anti-U.S. protests across Pakistan, police detained former cricket star Imran Khan at his Islamabad home and arrested dozens of supporters from his opposition party to block a rally against Bush's visit. Separately, a group of pro-Taliban militants were killed in fighting near the border with Afghanistan after a military strike on a suspected hide-out.

Mr. Bush said it was imperative to hunt down al Qaeda operatives and suggested Pakistan could do a better job sharing intelligence. "The key thing is that, one, it be actionable, and two, it be shared on a real-time basis."

Musharraf indicated Pakistan has had problems translating strategy into action. "If at all there are slippages, it is possible in the Bush also talked with Musharraf about complaints that Pakistan isn't doing enough to stop the infiltration of militants into India and Pakistan. Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khursheed Kasuri, said Pakistan was trying to stop the infiltrators but that it was a big challenge, much as 130,000 U.S. forces are trying to stop violence in Iraq but can't prevent all the bloodshed.

Pakistan has deployed about 80,000 forces along the Afghan frontier, but has failed to assert the government's control in these tribal regions which have resisted outside influence for centuries.

Waziristan is known as a hotbed of al Qaeda and Taliban militants who draw support from the local Pashtun tribal people. Many of the rebellious tribesmen involved in Saturday's unrest are believed to be Islamic students, referred to as "local Taliban," reflecting their sympathies with the hardline militia in Afghanistan.

Anger has been stirring among the tribesmen since Pakistan's army attacked a suspected al Qaeda camp earlier this week in the village of Saidgi near the Afghan border, about 10 miles from Miran Shah. Military officials said 45 people, including foreign militants, were killed in the attack, but the tribesmen claim local people died.

Saturday's fighting began in the town of Mir Ali, when tribesmen opened fire on vehicles carrying paramilitary rangers, said an army officer on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.

It then spread to nearby Miran Shah. About 500 armed tribesmen traded fire with paramilitary forces in the bazaar and, according to security officials, occupied government buildings. An Associated Press reporter saw both sides using mortar shells and assault rifles. Some shells hit closed shops.

Soon after the clashes started, phone lines to the town went dead.

Sultan, the army spokesman, said the militants started firing rockets at a Frontiers Corps base in Miran Shah so the army responded with artillery fire. He said the militants were led by local cleric Maulvi Abdul Khaliq, who this week called for a jihad, or holy war, against Pakistan's army.

Earlier Saturday, Khaliq had demanded that authorities stop killing "innocent" people in military operations and urged local elders in an announcement broadcast from mosques and loudspeakers mounted on pickup trucks to stop contact with the local government as a protest against the Saidgi operation.