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White House rules out apology for NATO strike

The White House has ruled out an apology to Islamabad for 26 November incident in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a NATO cross border fire and said it is time that the two countries move ahead, two days after such a demand was made Pakistan People's Party leader Bilawal Bhutto.

'I wouldn't have anything new to offer on that beyond what we have said, which we deeply regret the incident. We have thoroughly investigated it. We shared the results of the that investigation with the Pakistanis,' Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor, told foreign journalists when asked about his reaction in Bhutto's demand.

'We believe there's a basis for us to move forward and move beyond that particular incident, to take steps to make sure that that doesn't happen again, to be respectful of Pakistani sovereignty and to be in, frankly, better communication in that areas so that we don't see repeated incidents on the border,' he said at a conference at Foreign Press Center here.

Responding to another question, Rhodes said a  meeting between US President Barack Obama and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari was never planned on the sidelines of the NATO Summit. 'On the matter of a bilateral meeting, the president didn't host any formal bilateral meetings except for the one with President Karzai,' Rhodes said.
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