US warns Pak of 'severe consequences' if attack traced there

Washington: US has warned Pakistan it will face "very severe consequences" if a terror plot like the botched Times Square bombing was traced to that country.

"We've made it very clear that if - heaven-forbid - an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

Clinton said that US expects more cooperation in fighting terror from the Pakistan government and warned there could be repercussion if any future successful terror attacks in America were linked to Pakistan.

In an interview to CBS Television's '60 minutes' programme to be aired this weekend, Clinton acknowledged that Pakistan had become far more helpful in battling terrorists during the past year, but cooperation could be improved.

The Secretary of State said Pakistan's attitude toward fighting Islamic terrorists has changed remarkably.

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"We've gotten more cooperation and it's been a real sea change in the commitment we've seen from the Pakistan Government. (But) We want more. We expect more," she said.

Her comments came in the backdrop of failed Times Square bombing plot last week in which an explosives-laden car was planted by Faisal Shahzad, a naturalised American citizen who was born in Pakistan and who admitted of being trained by terrorists in Waziristan.

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Admitting that the Pakistanis had earlier played a "double game" with the US, Clinton said: "I think that there was a double game going on in the previous years, where we got a lot of lip service but very little produced.

"We've got a lot produced. We have seen the killing or capturing of a great number of the leadership of significant terrorist groups and we're going continue that." Now, she said, "We have a much better relationship, military to military, intelligence to intelligence, government to government than we had before."