Mukhtar also said Bush queried Gillani about who was in charge of the ISI. That followed an embarrassing about-face by Pakistan regarding the agency's chain of command on the eve of the White House meeting.
With Gillani en route to the U.S., his government announced that the ISI, which is led by a general and whose ranks are full of military men, would begin reporting to the civilian Interior Ministry. That order, which prompted an outcry from the ISI, was rescinded within hours.
Many Pakistani analysts do not believe that Gillani, who presides over a shaky and divided coalition government, can wield any real control over the intelligence establishment, which has long been an entrenched force in Pakistani politics and has flourished under military rulers.
"This government is much too weak for that," military analyst Ayesha Siddiqi said. "To harness an organization as powerful as the ISI would take very careful planning and coordination, and that has not happened."
The governing coalition is led by the Pakistan People's Party, which won the most votes in parliamentary elections held six weeks after the Dec. 27 assassination of its leader, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But it is locked in conflict with its main coalition partner, the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The two parties disagree on whether President Pervez Musharraf, who once held near-total power, should be allowed to remain in office after a disputed reelection, and on the reinstatement of judges Musharraf fired last year after imposing emergency rule, akin to martial law.
Critics say the infighting has stalled efforts to formulate a coherent policy on confronting militants who shelter in tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
The Bush administration and other Western governments believe that Pakistan's lack of action in recent months has given militants greater scope to stage attacks on coalition troops across the border in eastern Afghanistan, fueling an increase in troop casualties.
Four Western soldiers were killed Friday in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan's Kunar province, near the Pakistani border, the NATO-led force said. Their nationalities were not immediately disclosed, but almost all foreign troops in that area are American. A fifth North Atlantic Treaty Organization soldier was killed in a separate attack in another eastern province.
