Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the unusually blunt appeal for Obama to seek a resolution of the dispute when he visits India next month, saying he should ''redeem the pledge'' he made as a candidate.
The conflict over Kashmir has been the main source of friction between India and Pakistan.
Pakkistan has frequently sought outside intervention to resolve it but India vehemently opposes such involvement and the United States has traditionally stayed above the fray.
Qureshi, speaking next to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the closing day of three days of US-Pakistan talks, said Obama must get involved because a crackdown against suspected militants in Indian-administered Kashmir threatens the entire region.
''It is in the US strategic interest to work for peace, stability and resolution of the disputes in South Asia,'' he said. ''The starting point in this quest is justice for the Kashmiri people.''
''President Obama has always understood the importance of a Kashmir solution,'' Qureshi said. ''His coming visit to the region is the time to begin to redeem the pledge that he made earlier.''
As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama suggested that the US should encourage India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute so Pakistan could better focus on fighting extremists on its own territory and in Afghanistan.
Although he did not advocate direct mediation, his comments were met with disdain in India.
The violence in the region has killed at least 111 people, mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s. Indian authorities have imposed off-and-on curfews in an attempt to halt the unrest.
Quershi expressed astonishment that the US and other major powers had said little about India's response to the protests.
''People of conscience have protested the use of force against the defenseless people of Kashmir, in particular the targeting of the Kashmiri youth,'' he said.
''But the Kashmiri mothers are baffled by the deafening silence of the world's leadership. History has proved that the force of arms cannot suppress the legitimate aspirations of the Kashmiri people.''
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.
Indian commentators have worried about Obama's early focus on Pakistan and China —concerns unlikely to be allayed by the military package.
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.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna arrive for the opening plenary session of the US-India Strategic Dialogue at the State Department in Washington.
Opening a day of high-level talks, Clinton echoed Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's November call that the world's “leading democracies must play a leading role in building a shared destiny for all human kind.”
Seated next to Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and their delegations, the chief US diplomat said: “To fulfill it, we must not only build on areas of agreements but frankly address doubts that remain on both sides.
“Doubts among some Indians that the United States only sees India or mainly sees India in the context of Afghanistan and Pakistan, or that we will hasten our departure from Afghanistan, leaving India to deal with the aftermath.
“Doubts in America that India has not fully embraced its role in regional or global affairs or will not make the economic reforms needed to foster additional progress,” she told delegates seated around a U-shaped table.
“So with this dialogue and the level of confidence that we have established between ourselves, we will confront these concerns directly and candidly,” Clinton said.
She called for both countries to build on a multi-faceted relationship that already includes close cooperation on fighting terrorism, empowering women, eradicating disease, and efforts to improve crop forecasting.
And Clinton highlighted how two-way trade grew to 66 billion dollars last year, about 10 times the level in 1990, and how the United States holds more military exercises with India than any other country.
She praised the dynamism of the private sectors in both countries, but said both Washington and New Delhi must do more to remove red tape.
Krishna started off by calling for cooperating “more closely than ever before” in fighting the terrorism that has hit both countries.
He cited both the deadly 2008 siege in Mumbai and the more recent botched attack in New York's Times Square, both of which were linked to India's neighbor Pakistan.
“Given the fact that the groups who preach the idealogy of hatred and violence are increasingly coalescing, sharing resources and operating as one, it is incumbent upon all of us to focus our efforts laser-like on every one of them,” Krishna said.
“Targeting only one or the other of such groups will only provide false comfort in the short term and will not ensure in the long term stability,” he said.
His remarks appeared to urge Washington to press Islamabad to crack down on all the various militant groups in Pakistan.
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