国际英语新闻：US 'willing' to send troops to help Pakistan

WASHINGTON -- The US government is "ready, willing and able to" send a group of troops to Pakistan to help fight insurgency should the country ask for such assistance, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

"We remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so," Gates told a news conference.

However, President Pervez Musharraf's government has not yet requested for any additional help and the US government would respect Pakistanis' decision, Gates said.

"We are prepared to look at a range of cooperation with them in a number of different areas, but at this point it's their nickel, and we await proposals or suggestions from them," he added.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen also confirmed at the news conference that talks between the US and Pakistan government are progressing, while the US military has been ready to provide training or combat forces.

The US has been worrying that al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan would help Taliban remnants resurge and infiltrate into Afghanistan and political turbulence that hit Pakistan in recent weeks would jeopardize US-Pakistan joint efforts to counter terrorism.

At the news conference, Gates expressed his concern on al-Qaeda's threat would outreach Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"I think it would be unrealistic to assume that all of the planning that they're doing is focused strictly on Pakistan. So I think that is a continuing threat to Europe as well as to us," he said.