Albright Begins Pakistan Visit; Security Heavy

Amid heavy security, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived in Pakistan Monday night as part of an effort to raise the U.S. profile in the long-neglected South Asian region.

Albright planned a daylong visit here before continuing on to neighboring India.

She had been planning to spend 3-1/2 days in the area but tensions in the Persian Gulf prompted her to scale back her visit to two days. A planned visit to Bangladesh was scrapped.

The Pakistani government has been pinning high hopes on the visit, the first by an American secretary of state in 14 years.

But the environment surrounding the visit has been sobered somewhat by the recent killing of four Americans in Karachi. The attack in Karachi came just two days after the U.S. conviction of Pakistani Mir Aimal Kasi in the shooting of two CIA agents in 1993.

There had been speculation that Albright would use the Gulf situation as an excuse to cancel her visit.