WASHINGTON - US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who often makes controversial statements about Pakistan, on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, now on a visit here. No details of the conversation were given, but Gilani made a brief statement to reporters, saying that Obama, who aspires to be the first black-American president of the United States, supports democracy in Pakistan. During Obama's recent foreign trip, which also took him to Afghanistan, he  warned Pakistan, saying his administration will strike at al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan if Washington gets "actionable intelligence" on the presence of terror groups.   "What I've said is that if we had actionable intelligence against high-value al-Qaida targets and the Pakistani government was unwilling to go after those targets, then we should," he had said. "Now, my hope is that it doesn't come to that. Pakistani government would recognise that if we had Osama bin Laden in our sights, that we should fire or capture...", the 47-year-old senator from Illinois, said in an interview to CBS News which was broadcast on its 'Face The Nation' programme last week. Ahead of the prime minister's trip, Obama also suggested in an newspaper interview that the US should confront Islamabad on its funding of mujahideen groups in the valley and the terror camps running under its nose. "Historically Pakistan has tolerated or in some cases funded the Mujahideen" because they think it's somehow helpful to them in Kashmir which continues to be a "constant instigator" of tension between Islamabad and New Delhi, he told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. "We have to have an honest conversation about how counterproductive that is," Obama added. Asked whether US should play a role in negotiations been Pakistan and India, Obama said, "use that as an example of how we need to think comprehensively about the region. "If one of the central concerns of Pakistan is its security posture towards India, then we need to put that on the table for discussion as we try to solve the problems in Afghanistan". At the same time, Obama also showed his support Pakistan by inscribing himself as a co-sponsor of the Biden-Lugar legislation that seeks to triple economic assistance for Pakistan over next five years ($ 1.5 billion annually) and proposes a similar package for another five years.  He also favours sustained cooperation with Pakistan in the fields of education and economic development. On Monday Republican nominee John McCain telephoned Prime Minister Gilani. Meanwhile, Obama has often been criticised by Islamic groups for the odd way he responds to allegations that he is a Muslim. Accusing him of being  a victim of "Islamophobia", Junaid Afeef, director of public and government Affairs at the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, urged him to embrace his Muslim heritage with the same vigour and eloquence with which he has embraced his white and black heritage. "While his heritage may include Muslims, Mr. Obama is a Christian, and when his religion is incorrectly identified he rightly corrects the record. Now there is even a Web site called 'Fight the Smears" that challenges the lie that he is a Muslim," Afeef said. "The problem, however, is the manner in which he corrects the record. He vociferously denies being a Muslim as if it were a slur," he wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month. Obama's father was a Kenyan Muslim and his mother a white woman from Kansas. The couple divorced when Obama was two years old. Stating that many American-Muslim voters love Obama, Afeef regretted that  the African-American presidential candidate doesn't love them back. "As a great leader, Mr. Obama should take a principled stand on the issue of Muslims and Islamophobia. While anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. is substantial, it is not an insurmountable challenge," he wrote. But Afeef said Obama perceives the affinity Muslims have for him as a ability. "Mr. Obama is another victim of Islamophobia. He is now facing what Muslims have been and still are struggling with: an irrational fear and hatred of Muslims. Polls show that as many as 25% of Americans admit to prejudicial feelings against Muslims," he said. "Mr. Obama knows that Islamophobia has taken root in the U.S. Islamophobia hits very close to home for him because his father, from whom he also derives his black heritage, was a Muslim.