Islamabad:
US President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser summoned Pakistan's Ambassador to deliver a threat from the President release the American official arrested for gunning down two men in Lahore by Friday or "face the consequences", according to a media report.
National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told Ambassador Hussain Haqqani that the administration will "kick Haqqani out of the US", close US consulates in Pakistan and cancel an upcoming visit by Pakistan's President to Washington if US official Raymond Davis is not released from custody by Friday, ABC News channel quoted two unnamed Pakistani officials as saying.
Donilon reportedly conveyed the warning to Haqqani on Monday evening.
The "outlines of the threat" were also confirmed to ABC News by a senior US official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
White House spokesperson Tommy Vietor declined comment.
Haqqani denied the development via Twitter, saying in a message that no "US official, incl the NSA, has conveyed any personal threats 2 me or spoken of extreme measures".
Davis, 36, was today sent to jail for 14 days by a court in Lahore even as city police chief Aslam Tareen said he had been charged with murder as there was no proof to back his claim that he had acted in self-defence when he shot and killed the two men on January 27.
Davis has claimed that he opened fire after the two armed men followed his car and tried to rob him.
Video emerged this week of Davis showing his State Department credentials to Pakistani police officers during an interrogation and saying, "I'm a consultant".
Davis is in Pakistan on a diplomatic passport and the US has demanded his immediate release on the grounds that he enjoys diplomatic immunity.
The stand-off between Washington and Islamabad has taken the tense relationship between the two countries to a new low.
National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told Ambassador Hussain Haqqani that the administration will "kick Haqqani out of the US", close US consulates in Pakistan and cancel an upcoming visit by Pakistan's President to Washington if US official Raymond Davis is not released from custody by Friday, ABC News channel quoted two unnamed Pakistani officials as saying.
Donilon reportedly conveyed the warning to Haqqani on Monday evening.
The "outlines of the threat" were also confirmed to ABC News by a senior US official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
White House spokesperson Tommy Vietor declined comment.
Haqqani denied the development via Twitter, saying in a message that no "US official, incl the NSA, has conveyed any personal threats 2 me or spoken of extreme measures".
Davis, 36, was today sent to jail for 14 days by a court in Lahore even as city police chief Aslam Tareen said he had been charged with murder as there was no proof to back his claim that he had acted in self-defence when he shot and killed the two men on January 27.
Davis has claimed that he opened fire after the two armed men followed his car and tried to rob him.
Video emerged this week of Davis showing his State Department credentials to Pakistani police officers during an interrogation and saying, "I'm a consultant".
Davis is in Pakistan on a diplomatic passport and the US has demanded his immediate release on the grounds that he enjoys diplomatic immunity.
The stand-off between Washington and Islamabad has taken the tense relationship between the two countries to a new low.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
