By DPA,
Islamabad: The new US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan met Monday with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad to ease growing tensions over the arrest of a US national for killing two people.
On his first trip to the region, Marc Grossman held talks with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir before meeting Gilani.
The visit came as the relations between two countries are strained because of the arrest of Raymond David, a CIA contractor, who shot and killed two Pakistanis in the eastern city of Lahore Jan 28.
The US had claimed that Davis was a US embassy official and therefore enjoyed diplomatic immunity, but a local court Thursday said that no evidence had been produced about his diplomatic status.
An official privy to the talks between the US envoy and Gilani Monday said the prime minister told Grossman that the issue would be handled “in a responsible way and in the light of the court verdict”.
“Both leaders agreed that the issue would not affect the friendly relations between the two countries,” said the official, who asked that his name be withheld.
A formal statement was expected later in the day.
Grossman, 59, was appointed last month following the death of former envoy Richard Holbrooke.
The new US envoy was also scheduled to meet President Asif Ali Zardari and military chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.