'Memogate': US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon mum on issue

WASHINGTON: Amid a raging political storm in Pakistan over a secret memorandum to the Obama administration, US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon has chosen to remain mum on the issue while insisting that the two countries shared a "critically important" relationship.

"I don't have a way to comment from this distance. I just don't have a way to comment on that from this distance at this point," Donilon told reporters travelling with US President Barack Obama in Bali in response to a question on what is now being termed as 'memogate'.

Pakistan's envoy to US Husain Haqqani has gone to Islamabad to explain his position with regard to the controversy over the secret memorandum in which his country's civilian leadership purportedly sought American help to stave off a possible military takeover.

Donilon said the US has "obviously a critically important relationship with Pakistan. We have a critically important counter-terrorism relationship with the Pakistanis that we work on every single day."

"We have, obviously, the support that we need for our efforts in Afghanistan that we work on each day with the Pakistanis. We work with both the civilian government and with the military, depending on the issue," Donilon said.