Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday said he would address American concerns about the Lashker-e-Toiba during an upcoming visit to the US, a day after lawmakers asked the Obama administration to put more pressure on Islamabad to crack down on the LeT.

Qureshi said he would be willing to provide "any explanation sought" by American authorities. "They have a Congressional committee which discussed (this issue) and people expressed their views. They can do that, you can't impose restrictions on anyone. But I will be visiting the US in the near future and I will engage Congressmen and Senators. I will present our views to them," Qureshi said in response to a question during an interaction with reporters in his hometown of Multan.

Gary Ackerman, chairman of the US House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, yesterday described the Pakistan-based terror outfit LeT as a "group of savages" that ought to be crushed.

He said the LeT was "both tolerated by and connected to the Pakistani military".

In response to another question about the normalisation of ties with India, Qureshi said he was willing to hold talks with his Indian counterpart if such a meeting resulted in a tangible outcome.

"I have no objection to meeting (my Indian counterpart) but what is the purpose of such a meeting? If something comes out of the meeting, I am ready to meet him. I am ready to go there (for a meeting)," he said.

"If nothing will be achieved by such a meeting, I don't want to waste my time. I have no desire for a photo opportunity," Qureshi added.

"I sincerely want an end to tensions affecting ties and I sincerely want the resumption of the composite dialogue. I sincerely want an improvement in ties so that we can live like good neighbours," he said.

India and Pakistan have disputes and they had "decided on a mechanism to resolve these disputes", he said.

"We should move forward on this. We may not be able to solve them immediately but we can make progress. There are many issues on which there are bright chances of progress if there is political will and sincerity but I am not in favour of sitting for the sake of sitting and talks for the sake of talks," Qureshi said.

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