WASHINGTON: The United States has signaled that it is ready to part ways with Islamabad if Pakistan's military does not mend its ways of using terrorism as a policy tool.

Various US interlocutors have now gone public with allegations long suppressed about Pakistan's dalliance with terrorism, but president Obama himself led the charge at his White House press conference on Thursday with a public disquisition about Pakistani follies that reverberated across South Asia policy circles.

The US president stopped short of terming Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism but left no doubt about what he and his administration thought of a country only nominally regarded as an ally. After a token acknowledgement of its partnership and cooperation, Obama accused Pakistan of interaction with "unsavory characters" and "connection...with with certain individuals that we find troubling," - barely disguised euphemisms for consorting with terrorists.

The US president then delivered a telling message to Pakistan and its supporters who have long argued that Washington will never ditch Islamabad, saying, "there is no doubt that we're not going to feel comfortable with a long-term strategic relationship with Pakistan if we don't think that they're mindful of our interest as well."

The one caveat Obama laid down in the near future though was the US desire to "help the Pakistani people strengthen their own society and their own government" in the context of various crises facing the country". And so I'd be hesitant to punish aid for flood victims in Pakistan because of poor decisions by their intelligence services," he added.

The US president's brutally candid observations dissecting the Pakistani neuroses vis-a-vis India shocked US policy circles that have long been circumspect about Pakistani backing of terrorism because of US dependence on the country for a supply route to landlocked Afghanistan. But Obama showed that he was not going to be constrained by the logistical boondoggle.

Obama observed,"Part of what we want to do is actually get Pakistan to realize that a peaceful approach towards India would be in everybody's interests, and would help Pakistan actually develop, because one of the biggest problems we have in Pakistan right now is poverty, illiteracy, a lack of development, civil institutions that aren't strong enough to deliver for the Pakistani people."