Washington, Jan 14 : US Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton told her confirmation hearing that fighting terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan would be the highest priority of the Obama Administration.

"It is imperative that we work with our friends in both Pakistan and Afghanistan" to defeat terrorists in that region, she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Islamabad - Gunmen on Wednesday opened fire on a police vehicle in Pakistan's insurgency-hit Balochistan province, killing four law enforcers, including a senior officer, police said.

The attackers, riding a motorcycle, sprayed the pick-up truck with bullets on a main artery of Quetta, the provincial capital, when two officers along with three constables were moving towards a training school.

"Four policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), were killed," a junior official, Mohammad Ali, said over the phone. The other DSP was critically injured, with a bullet wound in his head, Ali added.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Islamabad, Jan 14 : Pakistani politicians have demanded an investigation into fast bowler Mohammad Asif's detention in the United Arab Emirates last year for possessing a small amount of opium.

Asif was caught at Dubai Airport on June 1, 2007, after being caught with 0.24 grams of opium on his way back to Pakistan after playing in the Indian Premier League. He was detained for 19 days before being deported.

Islamabad, Jan. 14 : A day after the US State Department imposed sanctions on disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist, A. Q. Khan, he has categorically denied ever having met al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

He said that the media reports about his contact were baseless, and a part of propaganda of the `western media'.

"I had no direct or indirect contact with Osama Bin Laden and suggestions to that effect were baseless propaganda by the western media," the Daily Times quoted Khan, as saying.

Lahore, Jan. 14 : Dismissing reports about Pakistan President, Asif Ali Zardari, attending the swearing-in ceremony of the US President-elect Barack Obama, the US has said that no foreign leaders have been invited to attend the ceremony.

According to the Daily Times, the invitations issued by the US Secretary of State have names of foreign ambassadors and their wives only, as guests for the ceremony in Washington DC on January 20.

Lahore, Jan 14 : President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the resolution of all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan is vital for durable peace in the region, and called for a resumption of the composite dialoguethat was broken off after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November last year.

Zardari expressed these views during a lunch hosted for TERI University Director General Dr RK Pachauri at the Presidency, the Daily Times reported.