The first high-ranking overseas government figure to visit Islamabad since the gun and bomb attacks that claimed the life of the country's opposition leader, Kouchner said he was speaking formally on behalf of the 27-member European Union.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's envoy said European efforts would, rather, be focused on leading the fight against extremism. "If you are talking about a group of international experts, why not, we will be happy to contribute," Kouchner told reporters at the start of a two-day visit to Pakistan. "If, though, you're asking for an international investigation in the UN sense of the term, there are conditions which, unfortunately, are not so easy to fulfil.
"An international commission is one thing, a UN commission is quite another - because that pre-supposes the involvement of a third-party (country). "In the case of Hariri, the presumption was that another country was implicated, whereas here, we can't say that with any certainty.
"As a consequence, unless UN rules were suddenly re-written, it would appear to me to be difficult." Kouchner said his visit came specifically at the behest of Slovenia, which formally assumed the EU presidency Tuesday. "(Benazir) was assassinated by an extremism that we, France and the European Union, have decided to fight," he said. "It would not be surprising if it was terrorism since I know that it makes its bed in the tribal zone of Pakistan."