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 Iraq -- and not Pakistan — was a major issue in the midterm elections in the United States and yet the Change these elections brought are likely to influence Washington's relation with Islamabad as well.

 In the elections held on, the opposition won the  majority, of the state governorships and the US House and Senate seats each for the first time since, an election-year commonly known as the.

 Without precedent for the historical backdrop of the United States, no Democratic occupant lost, nor did Republicans catch any open House, Senate, or gubernatorial seat recently held by a Democrat.

 But changes in US policies towards South Asia did not come overnight and are not directly linked to the midterm elections either. US attitude towards India, for instance, began to change soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat and an India admirer, also played a key role in bringing Washington close to New Delhi.

 But the Democratic victory did help India. There is a consensus in Washington that the Democrats are generally more pro-India than the Republicans. Their control over both chambers of the US Congress is expected to further increase India's influence on Capitol Hill. And if the Democrats also win the 2008 presidential elections, India will have the White House as well as Congress on its side. At least that's what Washington's political pundits say.

 Signs of a change in US attitude towards Pakistan are already visible. Key members of the US establishment –from the Secretary of State to the national intelligence chief are now backing claims that the Taliban have set up safe havens along the Pakistan-Afghans border.

In a recent interview to "Washington Post”, Secretary Condoleezza Rice urged Pakistan to make "more concerted effort” to prevent the tribal area from becoming a "safe haven” for terrorists.

 In a separate interview to the same newspaper, Director of National Intelligence John D Negroponte said that the public authority of Pakistan would before long need to choose what it could do about the ancestral specialists who have neglected to keep Taliban and Al-Qaeda warriors from moving to and fro across the line.

In September, Islamabad signed accords with tribal elder, in North Waziristan in which those leaders agreed that they would not allow border crossings "for any kind of militancy Consequently, Pakistani armed force units pulled out from that space Mr. Negroponte said that the "ancestral specialists are not satisfying the arrangement" and that to and fro travel by the Taliban and others "causes significant issues."

On December, 5, White House spokesman Tony Snow said that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was "an area of concern which needs to be addressed."

 Also in December, America's two top South Asian experts — Dennis Kux and Karl Inderfurth — urged Islamabad to give up its search for strategic depth in Afghanistan and instead work with its western neighbour to defeat the Taliban.

 Although in, the same ‘article, published in the Baltimore Sun, they also urged Kabul to accept the Durand Line as an international border and remove Islamabad's concerns over an extensive Indian presence in Afghanistan.

Mr. Inderfurth is a previous Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs and Mr. Kux is a previous US representative and writer of a few books on South Asia.

In their joint article, they tried to maintain a balance between what some in Washington describes as Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs and Islamabad's concerns about developments inside Afghanistan. Others are not so careful.

Another area where the change in US policies and attitude is even more obvious is that of Washington's President Bush and his senior aides have repeatedly said that the end of the Cold War has also brought a sea change in America's policies towards South Asia.

 India is no more a Soviet ally. It is an important country in a sensitive region with which Washington seeks close strategic and friendly ties.

 The  recently published report of the National Intelligence council, entitled “.Mapping the Global Future, notes that by 2020 China, India, Brazil and a few others are going to emerge as important global players.

 The National Intelligence Council, which is an associate body of the CIA, also notes that by 2020 "India's GNP will have overtaken or be on the threshold of overtaking European economies."

 In this emerging world, the United States needs new allies to ensure that it continues to play "a pivotal role across the broad range of issues — economic, technological, political, and militarily' and wants India on its side.

 Responding to Pakistan's objections to the recently concluded Indo-US nuclear deal, US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns made it obvious that Washington has no plans to offer a similar deal to Pakistan.

We've clarified up and down that this is an interesting arrangement to India in particular," said Mr. Consumes when a correspondent asked what it would take to offer Pakistan a comparative understanding.

This is an exception... we're making a special case for India just, and an exception to the law for India in particular," he said.

While long-term interests may have contributed to Washington's decision to promote India as "an exemption," the midterm elections definitely played a key role in forcing the Bush administration to reconsider its Iraq policy.

 The Democrats used the results for urging the Bush administration to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by early 2008.

President Bush opposes setting a timetable for withdrawal but he also acknowledges that Americans no longer favour the war as they did in 2003 when he invaded Iraq.

Soon after the midterm elections, a dispartisan commission called the raq Study Group also backed the demand for Withdrawal and advised the Bush administration to engage Iran and Syria as well while looking for a solution to the Iraqi crisis.

President Bush dislikes both the suggestion and sources close to the White House have indicated that when he announces his new Iraq strategy sometime in January, he is going to send more Troops to secure Baghdad.

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