Pakistani leader: Nation isn’t aiding Taliban

? Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf acknowledged Thursday that al-Qaida and Taliban militants were crossing from Pakistan to launch attacks in Afghanistan, but denied his government’s powerful military intelligence agency was helping them.

“You blame us for what is happening in Afghanistan,” Musharraf said in an address to Afghan government and army officials and lawmakers at the Foreign Ministry in Kabul. “Let me say neither the government of Pakistan nor ISI (Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence) is involved in any kind of interference inside Afghanistan.”

Musharraf’s speech, attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, came a day after the two leaders resolved to cooperate to fight the “common enemy” of terrorism and extremism.

Pakistan’s government and pro-Taliban militants signed a peace agreement Tuesday aimed at ending years of violent unrest on the Pakistani side of the porous border with Afghanistan. Under the deal, the militants are to halt attacks on Pakistani forces in the North Waziristan region and stop crossing into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.

President Bush said in a televised interview Thursday that he did not believe that Musharraf’s agreement with pro-Taliban militants was giving them a safe haven.

“What he (Musharraf) is doing is entering agreements with governors in the regions of the country, in the hopes that there would be an economic vitality, there will be alternatives to violence and terror,” Bush told ABC News. “You know, we are watching this very carefully, obviously.”

A U.S. soldier of the 1st Battalion, 32nd Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division walks to greet a young boy Thursday as soldiers patrol near Camp Florida in eastern Afghanistan.

Bush said the United States has made its position clear that Musharraf must not provide an environment that enables people to go from Pakistan to Afghanistan. He said he knows that Karzai is concerned about such movements.

Afghanistan is facing its deadliest surge of violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Musharraf said Pakistan had supported the fundamentalist Taliban regime in the 1990s, but that changed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against the United States.

He said Pakistan was saddened by accusations it was to blame for attacks in Afghanistan and it was supporting terrorism inside the neighboring country. Musharraf acknowledged militants were crossing from Pakistan to Afghanistan, but insisted his government was doing its best to stop it.

“There are al-Qaida and Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Certainly they are crossing from the Pakistan side and causing bomb blasts and terrorist activities in your country,” he said.

“We know they are doing this, but the question is this is not sponsored. … Let me give you my personal assurance that we are with you against Taliban and al-Qaida,” he said, adding that Pakistan had deployed 80,000 troops along its side of the Afghan border.

Musharraf said Pakistan had arrested some 300 Taliban this year from the southwestern city of Quetta and other areas and handed over 200 of them to the Afghan government.

Karzai, who had a second meeting with Musharraf on Wednesday, told the gathering that Afghanistan and Pakistan would go “hand-in-hand” to bring an end to terrorism.

“We are asking for your (Pakistan’s) help. It’s not an accusation, it’s not blame. It’s asking a brother to help us,” he said.

Pakistan’s frontier regions increasingly have come under the sway of the Taliban, which finds support among local tribesmen and religious students enraged by heavy-handed army operations aimed at crushing Islamic militants. The conflict has killed hundreds of soldiers, militants and civilians.