Islamabad: A top US general met yesterday with President Gen Pervez Musharraf to discuss escalating tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan and coordination in fighting terrorism, a government official said.
US Central Command Chief Gen John Abizaid, who arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for a two-day visit, called on Musharraf in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad, the official said on condition of anonymity.
They discussed the current tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the official said. Abizaid also met with other senior Pakistani military officials.
Relations between the Asian neighbours have been strained since Afghan President Hamid Karzai last month gave Pakistan a list of Taliban and Al Qaida fugitives allegedly hiding on the Pakistani side of the border. Islamabad dismissed the intelligence as outdated, but Kabul insists that it is accurate.
Musharraf told Abizaid that Pakistan was doing whatever is possible to flush out militants near the border and elsewhere, said an army official who requested not to be named. They discussed various proposals to bolster border security, he said.
Pakistan was once a main supporter of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, but it switched sides in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and has since backed Karzai's government.
