No plan to seize Pak soil, nuke programme: Gates

ISLAMABAD, Jan 22 : US Defence Secretary Robert Gates took on his critics in Pakistan on Friday, apologizing for past "grave" mistakes as he works to bolster ties with Washington 's key ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda.

In his first visit to Islamabad in three years and first under US President Barack Obama, Gates tried to reassure a public and leadership skeptical of Washington 's plan to tackle militancy and turn around the war in Afghanistan .

"I was in government in the early 1990s, when Russia left the region and the United States largely abandoned Afghanistan and cut off defence ties with Pakistan , a grave strategic mistake driven by some well-intentioned but short-sighted US legislative and policy decisions," said Gates.

Speaking at the National Defense University in Islamabad , he said a US ban on military contacts in the 1990s over Pakistan 's nuclear programme undermined a bond between the armed forces and created a "trust deficit" that lingered.

He vowed the United States was "prepared to invest whatever time and energy it takes to forge and sustain a genuine, lasting partnership" with Pakistan .

Gates said the US doesn’t want to seize even an inch of Pakistan and has no desire to take over its nuke programme.