Unstable Pak extremely dangerous for world, says VP hopefuls

Washington, Oct 3 (PTI) The U.S. Vice Presidential candidates Friday described an "unstable" Pakistan as "extremely dangerous" in their first live debate, with Democrat John Biden contending that its tribal areas and Afghanistan were the "central front" of the war on terror and not Iraq as projected by the Republicans.

At the face off with political novice Sarah Palin, 44,
ahead of the November election Biden, known for his deft
understanding of international relations, warned that the next
attack on the U.S. is "going to come from al Qaeda planning in
the hills of Afghanistan and Pakistan".

He declared that his government "will go after" terror
mastermind Osama Bin Laden if there is "actual intelligence".

In the first presidential debate last week, Democrat
Barack Obama too said if the U.S. had al-Qaida leaders and bin
Laden in sight and Pakistan was unable or unwilling to act,
"then we should take them out."

Asked which was the greater threat, a nuclear Iran or
an unstable Pakistan, Biden, 65, said "they're both extremely
dangerous. Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. Pakistan
already has deployed nuclear weapons. Pakistan's weapons can
already hit Israel and the Mediterranean.

"Iran getting a nuclear weapon would be very, very
destabilising.... So they're both very dangerous. They both
would be game changers," he said during the feisty debate in
St Loius, Missouri.

Biden said while Republican Presidential nominee John
McCain was insisting "that the central war in the front on
terror is in Iraq. I promise you, if an attack comes in the
homeland, it's going to come as our security services have
said, it is going to come from al Qaeda planning in the hills
of Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's where they live. That's
where they are."