Washington, Oct 22 : Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has reportedly launched a fresh attack on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, saying that his hot pursuit policy of sending troops into Pakistan in search of Al Qaeda and Taliban militants “could spark an international crisis”.

She also criticized Bush for showing his support for former Pakistani dictator-turned-President Pervez Musharraf.

“Sarah faulted Obama on his willingness to sit down with the world''s worst dictators without preconditions, to unilaterally send forces into sovereign Pakistani territory to try to kill Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda officials, or to draw down U. S. troops in Iraq,” said a report in Pakistani English daily The News.

“Senator Obama has also advocated sending our U. S. military into Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government. Invading the sovereign territory of a troubled partner in the war against terrorism,” the paper quoted Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor, as saying at a campaign rally in Nevada last evening.

Obama had subsequently clarified that he never called for invading Pakistan but “taking actions against high value targets if Pakistan is unwilling or unable to do that”.

According to the paper, Palin also advocated sending the American military into Pakistan from Afghanistan but “not without Pakistan’s approval”. She expressed her support in a conversation with a voter in Philadelphia less than a month ago, “If that’s what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should,” she had said. (ANI)