The US has said it was not apologetic about its unilateral action of hunting down Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil but it wants the government of that country to continue its cooperation in the war against terror.

“We do not apologise for the action,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily news conference yesterday, hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani attacked the US for violating his country’s sovereignty.

Carney was asked about allegations by Gilani that the United States has violated Pakistan’s sovereignty last week when its helicopters and special operation forces carried out a covert operation some 60 kilometres from Islamabad that killed bin Laden.

At the same time, the Obama Administration maintained that it expects the Pakistan government to continue to cooperate with the US in the ‘war against terror’.

“This relationship is too important to walk away from,” Carney said when asked about the strain in the relationship between the two countries.”The relationship is important and complicated. It has been cooperative in the past and we hope that it will continue to do so,” he said.

Carney said that Obama Administration is in consultations with the Pakistan government at various levels on a host of issues, including access to bin Laden’s three wives detained by the Pakistani authorities from the Abbottabad hideout, and materials seized from there.

While acknowledging that there are differences between the two countries on a host of issues, the White House spokesman hoped that Pakistan would carry out a complete investigation as to how bin Laden was successful in staying in Abbottabad for so long.

The United States hopes that they will carry on the investigation as this is in the interest of both countries.

“The United States and Pakistan have an important, complicated relationship, as we’ve said. The cooperation that we’ve had with Pakistan has been important for years now in our fight against terrorism and terrorists. And more terrorists have been killed on Pakistani soil because of that cooperation than anywhere else in the world, and that’s important to note,” Carney said.

Asked if the Obama Administration had confidence in the leadership of Pakistan, Carney said investigators were examining the substantial material recovered from bin Laden’s compound for evidence of the “support network” that must have existed to allow him to continue to live in Abbottabad for so long.