Aid to Pakistan

French Foreign Minister Bernhard Kouchner said on Wednesday, Jan. 2, that he was speaking formally on behalf of the 27-member bloc when he offered Pakistan help in combating extremism and probing the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Kouchner was the first high-ranking foreign official to visit Pakistan since the killing of Bhutto, in a gun and bomb attack after a campaign rally last week.

Kouchner rules out UN probe

"Today we proposed to President Musharraf to provide French or European experts," Kouchner said after meeting the Pakistani leader in Rawalpindi, the garrison city where Bhutto, 54, was slain. "Mr. Musharraf responded that the idea was interesting."

Koucher, however, stressed that he saw little prospect of a United Nations investigation into Bhutto's killing. Officials in Washington also said a UN investigation into Bhutto's death was unnecessary.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had called for a probe similar to that into the death in 2005 of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri, where an international court in the Hague will try suspects.

"If you are talking about a group of international experts, why not, we will be happy to contribute," Kouchner told reporters in Islamabad. "If, though, you're asking for an international investigation in the UN sense of the term, there are conditions which, unfortunately, are not so easy to fulfill."

Kouchner said a UN investigation commission presupposes the involvement of a third party or country.

"In the case of Hariri, the presumption was that another country was implicated, whereas here, we can't say that with any clarity," the French minister said. "As a consequence, unless UN rules were suddenly rewritten, it would appear to me to be difficult."

Musharraf asks for British help

Pakistani government officials have so far rejected calls for an international investigation into Bhutto's killing. But on Wednesday, Pervez Musharraf said he had asked British police for help in the investigation into the assassination.

"I am grateful to Prime Minister Brown that ... he accepted my request," Musharraf said in a televised address to the nation, referring to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"This team will come immediately and will assist our team in the investigation," Musharraf added. "I hope these investigations would be done properly with Scotland Yard and remove all doubts."

Though Musharraf's administration has said that local groups linked to al Qaeda were behind the assassination, Bhutto's party accuses the government of covering up events surrounding her death.

EU eager to fight extremism

Kouchner also handed over a letter from French President Nicolas Sarkozy which he said expressed his country's solidarity with Pakistan in the wake of the "horrible crime."

He said the letter also underlined Sarkozy's "support for what must be democratic efforts in the continuation of the election process as well as the fight against terrorism and extremism."

Koucher said his visit came specifically at the request of Slovenia, which took over the rotating EU presidency on Jan. 1.

"Bhutto was assassinated by an extremism that we, France and the European Union, have decided to fight," he said. "It would not be surprising if it was Islamist terrorism since I know that it makes its bed in the tribal zone of Pakistan."

Election delayed

Pakistan's Election Commission on Wednesday postponed the general elections by six weeks, to Feb. 18, saying polling was not possible on the original date of Jan. 8 because of disturbances following Bhutto's murder.

The decision has been criticized by opposition parties. They say the delay will benefit beleaguered Musharraf and his ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q. They also say a delay could provoke more unrest and violence.