WASHINGTON: The United States should seek Pakistan’s membership or at least observer status in major international forums, such as the Group of Twenty, a US task force recommended on Friday.

The panel – led by Richard Armitage and Samuel Berger, top aides to former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – notes that Pakistan’s presence in such groups would enable it “to connect with new power structures and familiarise it with emerging norms and responsible international behaviour”.

In a report released on Friday, the task force, which enjoys support of the administration, endorses the Obama administration’s effort to cultivate cooperation with Pakistan as the best way to “secure vital US interests in the short, medium, and long run”.

It recommends that this approach should include significant investments in Pakistan’s own stability, particularly after this summer’s floods. But in order for US assistance to be effective over the long-term, Washington must make clear that it “expects Pakistan to make a sustained effort to undermine Pakistan-based terrorist organisations and their sympathisers.” The task force warns that “two realistic scenarios” could force a fundamental reassessment of US strategy and policy.

First, it is possible that Pakistan-based terrorists conduct a large-scale attack on the United States and that the Pakistani government – for any number of reasons – refuses to take adequate action against the perpetrators. In the aftermath of a traumatic terrorist attack, it would be impossible for US leaders to accept Pakistani inaction.

The United States most likely would launch a targeted strike on Pakistani territory led by Special Forces raids or aerial attacks on suspected terrorist compounds. Even limited US military action would provoke a strong backlash among Pakistanis. Public anger in both countries would open a rift between Washington and Islamabad.

In a second scenario, Washington could reach the conclusion that Pakistan is unwilling to improve its cooperation on US counter-terrorism priorities. The panel warns that frustration over Pakistan’s persistent relationships with groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Afghan Taliban at some point could cause the United States to shift its approach towards Pakistan.

In this case, Washington will have a number of points of leverage with Pakistan. It could curtail civilian and military assistance. It could also work bilaterally and through international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the UN, to sanction and isolate Pakistan.

US operations against Pakistan-based terrorist groups could be expanded and intensified.
In the region, the United States could pursue closer ties with India at Pakistan’s expense.
“Sticks would be directed against Pakistan-based terrorists, but also against the Pakistani state, in an effort to alter its policies. The US-Pakistan relationship would become openly adversarial.”

But the panel warns that “Americans and Pakistanis must understand that these options carry heavy risks and costs. Both sides have a great deal to lose”.

WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday pledged two billion dollars in military aid to Pakistan and hailed its efforts to battle extremists, seeking to bolster an uneasy alliance with the frontline nation.

The military package, keenly sought by Pakistan's leaders, marks the latest twist in the two nations' crisis-prone relationship but risks causing unease in India just two weeks before a visit to New Delhi by President Barack Obama.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration would ask Congress to approve two billion dollars in military aid from 2012 to 2016 as part of the United States' “enduring commitment to help Pakistan plan for its defense needs.”

“The United States has no stronger partner when it comes to counter-terrorism efforts against the extremists who threaten us both than Pakistan,” Clinton said at high-level, three-day talks between the two nations.

The military package would be in addition to 7.5 billion dollars which Congress last year committed over five years in civilian aid, including building schools and roads, in a bid to dent the allure of extremists.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is accompanied by the army chief to the strategic dialogue in Washington, denounced criticism of his country's efforts against extremism.

“There are still tongue-in-cheek comments, even in this capital, about Pakistan's heart not really being in this fight. I do not know what greater evidence to offer than the blood of our people,” Qureshi said, sitting next to Clinton.

“We are determined to win this fight,” Qureshi said.

Clinton said that Americans “recognize and appreciate the sacrifice and service” of Pakistan's military.

“These groups threaten the security first and foremost of the people of Pakistan, of neighbors, of the United States and indeed the world,” Clinton said.

But a White House report to Congress this month faulted Pakistan for not working against Afghanistan's Taliban, in what experts say is an attempt by Islamabad to preserve influence in its neighbor if and when US troops leave.

Obama plans to pay his first presidential visit to India next month in an effort to show his personal commitment to broadening the relationship between the world's two largest democracies.

WASHINGTON: The United States acknowledged Monday that a wife of a key figure in the 2008 Mumbai attacks raised concerns about him months before the plot was carried out, but said the information was not specific.US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley added that the information about David Coleman Headley was forwarded to US government agencies and to the Indian authorities before the attacks that killed 166 people in November 2008.Crowley, asked about a report Saturday in The New York Times, said US officials had two meetings with one of "Headley's spouses in late 2007 and early 2008."She provided "some information. We followed up on that information and provided it to relevant agencies across the US government," he said."Did we share information with our security partners, including India, prior to the Mumbai attacks? The answer is yes," Crowley added."At the same time, the information was not specific," he said.If the US government had had specific information, it "would have absolutely provided it to the Indian government beforehand," he said."The fact is that while we had information and concerns, it did not detail a time or place of the attack," Crowley added.When asked why Headley was not arrested after the meetings, Crowley replied: "I can't answer that question."A senior US official said Headley's wife gave the information to the US embassy in Pakistan in December 2007, and that US officials asked for and obtained a second and last meeting with her in January 2008."She expressed concern about individuals that her husband was hanging around with," the senior US official told reporters on the condition of anonymity."She did say that she had concerns that they were involved in a terrorist plot. She had no details about who he was associated with or what they might be contemplating," the official added.Headley, the son of a former Pakistani diplomat and a white American woman, is being held in the United States.He confessed to plotting the Mumbai attacks and in exchange for pleading guilty, US prosecutors agreed he would not face extradition to India or the death penalty.The Washington Post reported Friday that another wife of Headley warned FBI agents in August 2005 that her husband had undergone intensive training with Lashkar-e-Taiba and was in contact with extremists.

UNITED NATIONS: Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked yet another controversy Thursday saying a majority of people in the United States and around the world believe the American government staged the Sept. 11 terror attacks in an attempt to assure Israel's survival.

The provocative comments prompted the US delegation to walk out of Ahmadinejad's UN speech, where he also blamed the US as the power behind UN Security Council sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used as fuel for electricity generation or to build nuclear weapons.
Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.
Ahmadinejad said the US has allocated $80 billion to upgrade its nuclear arsenal and is not a fair judge to sit as a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council to punish Iran for its nuclear activities. Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon.
The Iranian leader _ who has in the past cast doubt over the US version of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks _ also called for setting up an independent fact-finding UN team to probe the attacks. That, he said, would keep the terror assault from turning into what he has called a sacred issue like the Holocaust where ''expressing opinion about it won't be banned''.
Ahmadinejad did not explain the logic behind blaming the US for the terror attacks but said there were three theories:
_That a ''powerful and complex terrorist group'' penetrated US intelligence and defenses, which is advocated ''by American statesmen.''
_''That some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view.''
After Ahmadinejad uttered those words, two American diplomats stood and walked out without listening to the third theory: That the attack was the work of ''a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation.''
Mark Kornblau, spokesman of the US Mission to the world body, issued a statement within moments of the walkout.
''Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people,'' he said, ''Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable.''
Ahmadinejad said the US used the Sept. 11 attacks as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of people. He argued that the US, instead, should have ''designed a logical plan'' to punish the perpetrators and not occupy two independent states and shed so much blood.
He boasted of the capture in February of Abdulmalik Rigi, the leader of an armed Sunni group whose insurgency in the southeast of Iran has destabilized the border region with Pakistan. He praised Iranian security forces for capturing him in an overseas operation without resorting to violence. Rigi was later hanged.
Ahmadinejad's attacks on the United States and the dispute over Iran's nuclear program dominated the opening of the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned kings, prime ministers and presidents in his keynote address of the growing political polarization and social inequalities in the world and implored UN members to show greater tolerance and mutual respect to bring nations and peoples together.
''We hear the language of hate, false divisions between 'them' and 'us,' those who insist on 'their way' or 'no way,''' he said.
In times of such polarization and uncertainty, Ban said, ''let us remember, the world still looks to the United Nations for moral and political leadership.''
President Barack Obama, speaking soon after, echoed the secretary-general, warning that underneath challenges to security and prosperity ''lie deeper fears: that ancient hatreds and religious divides are once again ascendant; that a world which has grown more interconnected has somehow slipped beyond our control.''
The US president's 32-minute speech _ more than twice the allotted 15 minutes _ covered global hotspots from Iran and Afghanistan to the Mideast and North Korea.
Obama said Iran is the only party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty ''that cannot demonstrate the peaceful intentions of its nuclear program'' and as a result the UN Security Council has imposed four rounds of increasingly tough sanctions.
''The United States and the international community seek a resolution to our differences with Iran, and the door remains open to diplomacy should Iran choose to walk through it,'' he said. ''But the Iranian government must demonstrate a clear and credible commitment, and confirm to the world the peaceful intent of its nuclear program.''

Chief JUI and chairman Kashmir Committee, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been barred from entering USA on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Federal Minister Science and Technology Azam Khan Swati has been okayed to go America unconditionally.An official in US State Department confirmed to media on condition of anonymity that Maulana Fazlu was stopped from going to US at Doha international airport when he was ready to fly for America to attend an OIC moot being held in New York.US state department said his case is being reviewed at the moment, after which he will be issued boarding pass, he said further.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan should be wary of committing to an Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline because anticipated US sanctions on Iran could hit Pakistani companies, the US special representative to the region said on Sunday.

The US has carried out its first execution by firing squad in 14 years.
Convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, who had spent 25 years on death row, was killed soon after midnight local time (0600 GMT) on Friday, hours after a final appeal was rejected.
Gardner, 49, chose the firing squad as his method of execution before it was banned by Utah in 2004.
He was only the third man put to death in that way in the US since 1976.
He was convicted in 1985 of fatally shooting a lawyer during an attempt to escape from a court where he was facing another murder charge dating from 1984.

MOSCOW: A Russian space ship carrying a Russian cosmonaut and two US astronauts on Friday docked successfully with the International Space Station, mission control officials said. The Soyuz-FG rocket, which blasted off Wednesday for the ISS, carried Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and US astronauts Shannon Walker and Douglas Wheelock who opened the airlocks some two hours after docking. The team is expected to conduct several scientific tests, unload three Progress shuttles, and assemble an experimental satellite, space officials said earlier.

WASHINGTON: The United States has presented evidence to Pakistan that a militant faction aligned with the Taliban and based in Pakistan orchestrated brazen attacks last month in Afghanistan, a top general said on Wednesday.
The United States has long pressed the Pakistani military to crack down on the so-called Haqqani faction in the North Waziristan tribal region, which borders Afghanistan, but Islamabad has so far balked at doing so.
General David Petraeus, who oversees the Afghan war as head of US Central Command, told a Senate hearing that he, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff raised Haqqani links in a recent meeting with Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Kayani.
“We have shared information with him about links of the leadership of the Haqqani network located in North Waziristan that clearly commanded and controlled the operation against Bagram air base and the attack in Kabul, among others,”Petraeus said.
Suicide bombers carrying rockets and grenades launched a brazen predawn attack on the base on May 19, killing an American contractor and wounding nine US troops.
About a dozen militants, many wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, were killed, the Pentagon said at the time.
A day earlier, a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy in Kabul, killing 12 Afghan civilians and six foreign troops.
The Pentagon has expressed confidence that Pakistan will eventually mount an offensive in North Waziristan, but said Islamabad would decide on the timing.
The Haqqani network has long been described by US forces as one of their biggest enemies in Afghanistan.
But there are strategic reasons for Pakistan's hesitancy to attack the Haqqanis.
Pakistan sees the group as a strategic asset that will give it influence in any peace settlement in Afghanistan so Islamabad will want those militants on its side.
The United States has increased pressure on Pakistan to act in North Waziristan following a botched May 1 car-bombing in New York's Time Square that US investigators have blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.
But Pentagon officials have said they understood the Pakistani military was already stretched by operations in other tribal areas.

UNITED NATIONS: The Security Council pressed Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders on Tuesday to speed up reunification talks and renewed the mandate of the UN force on the divided island for another six months. Fourteen of the council’s 15 members backed a resolution urging the two sides to take advantage of recent progress “by intensifying the momentum of negotiations, preserving the current atmosphere of trust and goodwill and engaging in the process in a constructive and open manner.” The lone vote against came from Turkey, with its ambassador Ertugrul Apakan objecting that some of the language in the text was formulated as if there were “only one side in the dispute.” The resolution, sponsored by Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, also extended the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force (UNFICYP), which expires on Tuesday, until next December 15. UNFICYP has been patrolling the Mediterranean island’s ceasefire line since 1964. UN envoy Alexander Downer voiced hope early this month that the inter-communal talks could be concluded by year’s end. And UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned Cypriot leaders that time is running out for a peace deal, but expressed confidence an agreement can be reached in coming months.

The flagging health of an aged Gulf Arab ruler has raised the spectre of a succession challenge by a deposed son seeking sway in a strategic corner of the US allied, oil-exporting United Arab Emirates. Sheikh Saqr al Qasimi, whose Ras Al Khaimah emirate has been a source of occasional unrest for the UAE, has been in hospital for around a month, officials say. Believed to be in his 90s, the sheikh has ruled the emirate for over 60 years. Qasimi’s son Sheikh Saud is ruling the emirate in his father’s stead but is facing a challenge from his older half brother Sheikh Khalid, deposed as crown prince in 2003. “Khalid is trying to exploit the health of his father,” said Ahmed Mansour, a blogger and commentator from Ras al-Khaimah.” There are some groups still hoping Khalid will come back.” Many observers say they do not expect Khalid to win power, although his quest may complicate any transition in what is likely the least stable emirate in the seven-member UAE federation that includes business hub Dubai and oil-exporting Abu Dhabi. In 2003, the UAE federal government sent tanks into the emirate to subdue protests after the popular Khalid’s ouster. The closest emirate to Iran, Ras al-Khaimah sits on the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world’s traded oil passes. Some analysts point to the emirate, which produced one of the September 11 hijackers, as a scene of growing Islamism, although most say security risks are exaggerated. Abu Dhabi, seat of UAE federal union, has left the emirate to sort out its affairs even as Khalid’s efforts intensify. “He and his supporters are going around town meeting left, right, and center trying to revive the issue,” a UAE-based observer familiar with the matter said, declining to be named. Sheikh Saqr’s government has given no reason for Khalid’s 2003 ousting, but a spokesman said the sheikh felt Saud’s rule was more in the emirate’s interest. Emirati analysts say Saud, a businessman, capitalised on Khalid’s purported opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq, though Khalid’s spokesmen say the allegation is untrue. Ras Al Khaimah seems a distant relative to Dubai’s glitzy skyscrapers and Abu Dhabi’s manicured lawns. Its weathered buildings squat along the sparkling Gulf waters, in sharp contrast to the elegant new beach resorts dotting the coastline. Crown prince Saud has tried to make Ras Al Khaimah a large real estate and investment zone like Dubai. He appeared to be succeeding, but the debt crisis hit the emirate hard. Meanwhile Khalid, using Facebook, YouTube, and a US public relations firm, has challenged some of the emirates’ business ties to Iran and suggested it may be a “rogue state in the UAE”. His media-savvy campaign is unusual for the conservative Gulf, where politics are typically decided behind closed doors. Jason Kinney of public relations firm California Strategies said Khalid hoped to highlight “issues surrounding the current regime in Ras Al Khaimah which affect the security and stability of the region”. The firm lists several articles suggesting that Ras Al Khaimah was a potential haven for al Qaeda or that its port maybe under Iran’s influence, invoking concerns that nuclear materials could pass through there to the US foe. “This is a campaign based on false stories. It is baseless,” a spokesman from Saud’s government said. Some analysts however, like Christopher Davidson of Oxford Analytica, agreed the emirate faces growing Islamist sentiments. Last year, Ras Al Khaimah lost a chance to host the America’s Cup after one team contended the site could pose a security risk for US sailors due to possible militant attacks. Officially, the locale was found to violate race rules. But Theodore Karasik, a security analyst at UAE-based INEGMA, said there was a federal security presence in the emirate to mitigate any risks, and that its Iranian business ties were normal for the UAE. Khalid’s campaign was also unlikely to win him any points with the federal government, which would not appreciate hints of an al Qaeda presence in the country just as it is trying to rebuild investor confidence following Dubai’s debt crisis. “Ras Al Khaimah isn’t a standalone country. It is part of the UAE. Putting it under fire is not just burning his brother, it’s bringing Abu Dhabi’s feet close to the fire,” Mansour said. But Davidson said it may be hard for Abu Dhabi to ignore the popularity Khalid is still believed to enjoy among locals. Sipping a coffee inside the sleek new mall built under Saud, one local resident, Abdel Rahman, weighed the odds: “People here love Khalid. But we are getting used to Saud. He developed this place ... I can’t imagine he won’t hold on to power.”

CHICAGO: Rescuers searched miles of rivers and shoreline Saturday for survivors of a flash flood that tore through campsites in a remote forest in the southern US state of Arkansas, killing at least 18 people including six young children. Survivors described a torrent of water that arrived without warning, sweeping through the Ouachita National Forest and catching campers and families vacationing in hillside cabins completely unaware in the dead of night. On Saturday rescue teams recovered two bodies, raising the death toll to 18, spokesman Matt DeCample of the Arkansas governor's office told media. Six of the 15 victims who were identified were children between the ages of two and seven. Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said the disaster was made "all the more tragic" with the death of the six children. Officials were still hopeful that survivors could be found, but it had been unclear exactly how many people were missing because the Albert Pike campground, which bore the brunt of the massive surge of water, and other sites had sign-in registration records that were simply swept away by floodwaters. Emergency authorities said they believe there were around 300 people at the sites at the time of the disaster, but it was also unclear how many people had escaped the area.

Drug enforcement officers in the US say they have arrested more than 2,200 people in an investigation targeting Mexican trafficking rings.
The joint operation lasted almost two years and culminated on Wednesday with more than 400 arrests across 16 states.
Officers also seized considerable amounts of methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin.
US Attorney General Eric Holder said Project Deliverance had been a significant blow to Mexican cartels.
He said the arrests and seizures would disrupt their operations but also warned that it was only one battle in an ongoing war.
The investigation focused on the infrastructure used to distribute illegal drugs across the US and smuggle guns and cash back to Mexico.
During the 22 months the operation lasted, officers seized more than $150m (£103m), 2.2 tonnes of cocaine, half a tonne of methamphetamine and 62 tonnes of marijuana.
Mr Holder said it had been the most extensive and most successful law enforcement effort to date targeting Mexican drug cartels.

The US government has given BP 72 hours to present its latest plans to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP says its containment effort is going well, but there are signs of mistrust between the company and the government.
The US justice department is mulling legal action to make sure BP has enough funds to cover the damage and compensate those affected by the slick.
That could mean shareholders are not paid dividends, which would infuriate investors and hit pension funds.
Amid growing public anger in the US, President Barack Obama will make his fourth visit to the region on Monday. Growing distrust
The Obama administration is applying steadily more pressure on the BP, which claims it will have almost completely contained the ruptured oil well by the early part of next week.
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the man in charge of the clean up operation, has given the company three days to present its latest plans for cleaning up the Gulf.
He also wrote to BP on Tuesday demanding "more detail and openness" about how the company was managing claims for compensation payments to individuals and businesses in the region.
Meanwhile, 33 US House lawmakers sent a letter to BP chief executive Tony Hayward, urging the company not to spend money on a dividend and an advertising campaign to improve BP's image.
"We urge you to halt your planned dividend payout and cancel your advertising campaign until you have done the hard work of capping the well, cleaning up the Gulf Coast and making whole those whose very livelihoods are threatened by this catastrophe," the letter said.
Oil has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank off the coast of the US state of Louisiana, killing 11 workers. Oil plumes
Some beaches in Florida are for the first time displaying warning signs telling holiday makers not to swim in the sea here, the BBC's Andy Gallacher reports from the Florida panhandle.
A containment cap placed on the blown-out well last week is now helping to contain some of the leaking oil.
Adm Allen said in a press conference on Wednesday that the operation was catching up to 630,000 gallons (2,800,000 litres) daily.
BP's chief executiveis due to appear before Congress for the first time next week.
The British energy firm's shares fell 3.4% on Wednesday over worries that the company will have to suspend its dividend payments because of the disaster.
Meanwhile, tests have shown that underwater oil plumes have travelled at least 64km (40 miles) from the leaking well, the US government says.

LONDON: The United States is concerned at a breakdown in Turkey’s relations with Israel and fears Europe’s rebuff of Ankara’s EU aspirations is pushing the pivotal country “eastward”, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday. As Nato’s only Muslim member, Turkey has been a key US ally in the Middle East, but its deteriorating ties with Israel and recent overtures to Iran have stoked worries in Washington. “I personally think that if there is anything to the notion that Turkey is, if you will, moving eastward, it is, in my view, in no small part because it was pushed, and pushed by some in Europe refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought,” Gates told reporters in London. Turkey’s long-running negotiations to join the European Union have slowed to a snail’s pace, partly because of disputes over Cyprus but also because the leaders of France and Germany have made clear they do not want the Turks to join. Relations between Ankara and Israel plunged to their lowest level in decades last week after nine Turks were killed when Israeli commandos stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, sparking an international outcry. At the same time, Turkey has pursued a rapprochement with Iran, promoting a compromise on Tehran’s nuclear programme that it believes should avert further international sanctions, which Turkish leaders have publicly opposed. The Islamist-leaning Turkish government backed the attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to use the convoy of aid ships to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Hamas movement. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan responded by recalling Turkey’s ambassador from Israel and cancelling joint military exercises with the Jewish state. “The deterioration in the relationship between Turkey and Israel over the past year or so is a matter of concern,” Gates said.“The two had a pretty constructive relationship and one that contributed to stability in the region, and I hope that, overtime, that kind of constructive relationship can be re-established.” He appeared to blame the estrangement more on European obduracy than on Israeli behavior. “We have to think long and hard about why these developments in Turkey (are occurring) and what we might be able to do to counter them and make the stronger linkages with the West more apparently of interest and value to Turkey’s leaders,” he said. An aide to Gates said Washington’s concerned included a perception that EU countries were setting the bar higher for Turkey than for past candidates for membership in a deliberate effort to make accession more difficult. The 27-nation bloc has frozen negotiations on 13 of the 35policy areas into which the EU talks are divided — eight due to Turkey’s refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus, and five due to French objections to discussing any item that implies eventual Turkish membership.

Brazil's economy grew at its fastest rate in at least 14 years in the first three months of 2010, official figures have shown.
Its gross domestic product (GDP) surged by 9% compared with the same period a year earlier.
However, higher interest rates and the withdrawal of some tax breaks are expected to cool growth eventually.
Brazil's economy is the largest in Latin America and the eighth-biggest in the world.
Agriculture and industry were among the growth sectors, the government said. 'Confirmation'
Much of Brazil's economy is driven by domestic consumer demand rather than exports - which analysts say means it is relatively insulated from Europe's debt crisis and the projected slow recovery of the US.
"These figures are confirmation of what the market was talking about, a strong first quarter with very strong domestic demand despite the weak external sector," said Pedro Tuesta, senior Latin America economist at research firm 4Cast Inc.
The government said the annual growth was the swiftest pace seen since at least 1996.
Brazil's economy grew by 2.7% on the previous three months - again beating analysts' expectations.

KABUL: Two more NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday, the military said, a day after international forces lost 10 soldiers in a string of attacks.The soldiers died in an improvised bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said, without giving any further details.On Monday seven US, one French and two Australian soldiers were killed in various attacks, making it the deadliest single day in combat for NATO forces since 11 French troopers lost their lives in August 2008.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said he wanted to know "whose ass to kick" over the Gulfof Mexico oil spill, adding to the pressure on energy giant BP Plc as it sought to capture more of the leak from its gushing well. "I don't sit around just talking to experts because this isa college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answer so I know whose ass to kick," Obama said in an interview. They were the angriest words yet about the catastrophe from Obama, who has been criticized for his response to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Obama reiterated that all those affected should be adequately compensated. The stakes remain high for all involved from Gulf Coast communities devastated by the disaster to Obama and his domestic standing to BP and its battered reputation with the public and investors.