Islamabad, Jan 25 : US President Barack Obama''s pick for next Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry, dismissed a proposal that US stop aid to Pakistan until Islamabad complied with Washington''s demands, saying such a ''sledgehammer approach'' was not the way to deal with issues.

Kerry was responding to a suggestion by Republican Senator Rand Paul seeking an end to aid to Pakistan until Dr Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor involved in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, was released, reports The Nation.

Kerry said cutting aid is a "dramatic, draconian, sledgehammer approach" to a relationship that really has a lot of interests.

He said the US needs to build its relationship with the Pakistanis, not diminish it. Kerry said he had raised the issue of Dr Afridi''s imprisonment with the Pakistani leadership.

He added that he found Dr Afridi being jailed incomprehensible as the doctor had helped find bin Laden. (ANI)