Musharraf hails relations with UK

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says there is "total understanding" with the UK over a range of issues.

Musharraf says both leaders are in broad agreement

He was speaking after talks with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on the first stage of a world tour.

General Musharraf also said the Pakistani authorities were meeting great success in their fight against terror groups within the country.

The general's four-nation tour will include talks with US President George W Bush at Camp David next week.

Accusations rejected

President Musharraf spoke briefly to reporters after talks with Mr Blair in Downing Street.

Al-Qaeda, the Taleban and our own religious extremists. We are operating against all three

President Musharraf

He said there was total understanding over issues ranging from Afghanistan and Iraq to relations with India.

And he rejected accusations that Pakistan was allowing militants to cross the Line of Control in Kashmir to attack Indian targets.

He said there was nothing happening across the Line of Control at all, and - contrary to what the Indians kept saying - the rebellion against Indian rule was a local matter.

The general said his government was meeting great success in the fight in Pakistan against al-Qaeda, the Taleban, and indigenous militant groups.

"My government is totally against any form of religious extremism," he told reporters.

Key tour

The BBC's Paul Anderson in Islamabad says General Musharraf is hoping to cover a huge agenda of business on what is his biggest foreign tour since he seized power in a coup in 1999.

"Pakistan desires to build a long-term and strategic relationship with the United States and Europe," the general said before leaving Islamabad.

Issues expected to dominate his discussions include:

• Kashmir, the major stumbling block to normalising relations with fellow-nuclear power, India
• the continuing hunt for al-Qaeda and former Taleban suspects in Pakistan
• the rise of Islamic radicals in Pakistan, notably in North West Frontier Province where hardline Islamic Sharia law is being introduced
• and President Musharraf's struggle with those who oppose his controversial constitutional amendments

The US warmed to Pakistan after it joined the "war on terror" in 2001.

A bullet riddled wall in Indian-administered Kashmir

But in recent months US officials have questioned whether Islamabad is doing enough to prevent Pakistan-based militants crossing into Indian-administered Kashmir to attack targets there.

The Pakistani leader is due to spend nine days in the US, from 20 June, with the highlight being his meeting with President Bush at his Camp David retreat.

As well as discussing Kashmir, General Musharraf says he will seek to win concessions from the US for the economic cost of the war on terror.

He wants a further debt write-off and access to American markets and military hardware.

After the US, President Musharraf flies to Germany to meet Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and then moves to France for talks with President Jacques Chirac.