Pakistan's spy chief cancels visit to Britain

London: A diplomatic spat with implications for international counterterrorism escalated Saturday after Pakistan's spy chief cancelled a visit to London following comments by the British leader suggesting Pakistan exports terrorism.

A trip to Britain by President Asif Ali Zardari is still scheduled, but relations between the two countries have been strained by Prime Minister David Cameron's blunt comments during a visit to Pakistan's nuclear rival, India.

Cameron, who took office in May, said Pakistan must not be allowed to "promote the export of terror whether to India, whether to Afghanistan or to anywhere else in the world".

Cameron later conceded that Pakistan had made moves against terror organisations, but said "it still needs to take further steps".

The remarks outraged Pakistani officials. Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's ambassador to Britain, called the comments "an immature reaction from an immature politician".

A senior Pakistani intelligence official confirmed that yesterday Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lieutenant General Ahmad Shujaa Pasha had called off a trip planned for next week, when he had been due to discuss security cooperation with British intelligence bosses. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with his agency's policy.

Saturday, about a dozen protesters from the Islamist group Shababe Milli burned the effigy of Cameron in the city of Karachi.

The demonstrators chanted "Down with Cameron!" and "God is great!" outside the Karachi Press Club. "Cameron — the loose mouth," a placard read.

Pakistan insists that it has done more than any other country to combat terrorism, sending the army to fight Taliban and Al Qaida-linked militants within its borders and cooperating closely with Western intelligence agencies.

But its military-run spy agency that operates largely beyond civilian control has long been accused of secretly aiding Afghanistan's Taliban and other Islamist militants.