ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -Pakistan wants to develop and stabilize its relationship with the United States, but Washington needs to do more to build mutual trust in the battle against terrorism, Pakistani officials said.

"The US is a superpower that we can't challenge. But a good relationship is not based on an asymmetric partnership. It should be based on commonalities of interests and heart-to-heart relations, which is now missing in Pakistan-US relations," said Ashraf J. Qazi, director-general of the Institute of Strategic Studies of Pakistan and former Pakistan ambassador to China, the US and India.

Pakistan has a unique geopolitical position that is extremely important to US strategic interests. The relationship is not breaking down and it has to continue as the US is also important to Pakistan, but it can only build up relations with Pakistan on the basis of mutual respect, Qazi said.

"The dignity and independence of sovereignty should be respected."

The unilateral US military raid on Abbottabad that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden shocked Pakistanis for the lack of respect for the nation's sovereignty and brought the Pakistan-US relations to a very difficult and fragile point.

Athar Abbas, director-general of Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR), said there are a lot of external factors beyond Pakistan's control which influence the counter-terrorism process in Pakistan.

The nation's border with violence-wracked Afghanistan and enormous camps of Afghan refugees increased the threat of terrorism in Pakistan, and the nation's traditional tribal systems also complicated the fight against terrorism.

He said Pakistan's own concerns and constraints regarding counter-terrorism should be considered by the US, and he also wanted Washington to share more intelligence on terrorism with Pakistan.

"Although we have the common goal of anti-terrorism, the two countries see the issue from different angles and based on different interests. If we are all moving toward eliminating terrorism, please do not impose your timelines and macro strategies," Abbas added.

Admiral Noman Bashir, chief of Naval Staff of the Pakistan Navy, said the US and Pakistan have long worked together in the fight against terrorism.

If both sides can understand each other, everyone will benefit.

According to Qazi, it cannot be denied that bin Laden's refuge in Pakistan for years before being killed by the US was a major failure of Pakistan's intelligence service, but the governments said there was no complicity.

"Pakistan has no reason to support any kind of terrorism as it has contributed greatly to the war on terrorism and paid an extremely high price."

Pakistan's military has conducted almost 900 anti-terror operations. Achievements have been made, but at the cost of more than 33,000 casualties, according to ISPR.

The price also includes a decline in foreign investment, especially from Western countries, which has had a serious impact on the nation's economic development, said Latif Khosa, governor of Punjab state.

China Daily