WASHINGTON As President Barack Obama left for a three-day visit to India on Friday, a senior Pakistani official accused the United States of following its traditional anti-Pakistan policies on core issues, including Kashmir, according to a report in The Washington Post. Unfortunately, on core issues, the US continues to stick to its traditional anti-Pakistan policies - whether it is our nuclear energy programme, the Kashmir dispute, our relations with India or our position vis-a-vis Afghanistan, the unnamed Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying in Islamabad. So long as Washington does not revisit these issues, it will continue to be very difficult for Washington to make any headway on winning hearts and minds in Pakistan, the official, who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, said. The newspaper said in a dispatch from Islamabad that President Obamas decision to visit India, while bypassing Pakistan, has sparked anxiety among government officials who warn that Obama risks upsetting the delicate balance of power between the nuclear-armed neighbours. While Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan, stressed this week that Obamas visit to India was not at Pakistans expense, it had not stopped Pakistanis from interpreting it that way, the paper said. Pakistani officials say they are particularly interested in seeing Obama push India to do more to settle the decades-old dispute over Kashmir. Pakistani government officials said that, at the least, they expect Obama to avoid the confrontational stance taken by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said during a July speech in India that Pakistan is promoting the export of terror. Yet even if Obama refrains from challenging Pakistan directly, officials here said, they fear the President will seek to enhance the civil nuclear partnership with India. If there is an effort to build India up as a regional influence, a country that is assigned the responsibility for security in the region, that is unacceptable for Pakistan, Maleeha Lodhi, another former ambassador to Washington, was quoted as saying. Clearly, for deterrence to work, we need the minimum threshold of conventional balance. Meanwhile, on the eve of his departure, US National Security Council Spokesman Mike Hammer reiterated the Obama Administrations hands off approach on Kashmir, saying while it supported an India-Pakistan dialogue, clearly it is something that the two need to resolve. As youve heard repeatedly from others in the Administration, we support and encourage ongoing efforts between India and Pakistan to resolve their issues directly, he told a news conference at the Foreign Press Centre.