We do not deal with Pakistan through lobbyists

The United States has said that it is not engaged in business with Pakistan through lobbyists and is looking forward to talking to Islamabad after the latter completes internal review of its ties with Washington.

"I don't have any knowledge of the letter one way or the other. But I will tell you that we don't do our business with Pakistan through its lobbyists," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said when asked about a letter written by a lobbyist urging the US to tender an apology to Pakistan for the November 26 NATO raid that killed 24 soldiers.

"We do our business with Pakistan through our representatives in Islamabad and throughout the country, as well as through the Pakistani embassy here," she said.

"I think you know where we are with Pakistan, which is that we are trying to be respectful of the time that Pakistan has asked for to complete its internal review, and then we look forward to talking to the government about where it wants to go on those aspects of our relationship that have been put on hold for the period," Nuland said.

But, there is an ongoing level of communication between the two countries.

"So we maintain very strong communication on other issues. All of our civilian programs are going forward. So it is simply this issue of where we go on some of our security and counterterrorism issues that are pending the internal review on the Pakistani side," she sa