WASHINGTON: Senior officials in the administration of US President George W Bush have questioned US Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad over “unauthorised” ties to PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. US officials, who have insisted on their neutrality in the Pakistan political process, are puzzled and angry over Khalilzad’s frequent contacts with Zardari, the report said.

Khalilzad had spoken with Zardari by phone “several times a week for the past month until he was confronted about the unauthorised contacts,” The Times quoted a senior US official as saying.

According to the text of an email obtained by the newspaper, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher asked Khalilzad about the nature of his contacts after learning that Khalilzad sought to provide Zardari with “advice and help”.

“Can I ask what sort of ‘advice and help’ you are providing?” the email said. “What sort of channel is this? Government, private, personal?” Khalilzad, who was a close ally of Bhutto before she was slain last year, cancelled a meeting with Zardari planned for next Tuesday while he vacations in Dubai, after Boucher learned of his plans, the report said.

“Ambassador Khalilzad had planned to meet socially with Zardari during his personal vacation,” US mission to the United Nations spokesman Richard Grenell was quoted as telling the newspaper.

“But because Zardari is now a presidential candidate, Ambassador Khalilzad postponed the meeting, after consulting with senior State Department officials and Zardari himself.” Officials speaking on condition of anonymity told the paper that the behaviour by Afghan-born Khalilzad “raised hackles because of speculation he might seek to succeed Hamid Karzai as the president of Afghanistan”.

A senior American official said that Khalilzad had been advised to “stop speaking freely” to Zardari, and that it was not clear whether he would face any disciplinary action. Administration officials described John D Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, and Boucher as angry over the conduct of Khalilzad because as United Nations ambassador he has no direct responsibility for American relations with Pakistan.

Those dealings have been handled principally by Negroponte, Boucher and Anne W Patterson, the American Ambassador to Pakistan. “Why do I have to learn about this from Asif after it’s all set up?” Boucher wrote in the Aug 18 message, referring to the planned Dubai meeting with Zardari.

“We have maintained a public line that we are not involved in the politics or the details. We are merely keeping in touch with the parties. Can I say that honestly if you’re providing ‘advice and help’? Please advise and help me so that I understand what’s going on here.”

A senior Pakistani official said that the relationship between Khalilzad and Zardari went back several years, and that the men developed a friendship while Zardari was spending time in New York with Benazir.

The Pakistani official said the consultations between the men were an open exchange of information, with each one giving insight into the political landscape in his capital. “Khalilzad, being a political animal, understood the value of reaching out to Pakistan’s political leadership long before the bureaucrats at the State Department realised this would be useful at a future date,” the official said. The ambassador “did not make policy or change policy, he just became an alternate channel”, the official said.

Of Khalilzad’s Pakistan contacts, State Department spokesman Sean I McCormack said: “Our very clear policy is that the Pakistanis have to work out any domestic political questions for themselves.” White House spokesman Gordon D Johndroe said, “The Pakistani elections are an internal matter for the Pakistani people.”