Al-Qaeda 'on the run' in Pakistan

Musharraf says his forces have captured militant 'sanctuaries'

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says that his forces have "broken the back" of al-Qaeda in the country.

Speaking at a meeting at the end of his three-day visit to Australia, Gen Musharraf said the al-Qaeda was "on the run" in Pakistan.

His comments came a day after a Taleban commander claimed that Osama Bin Laden and Afghanistan's former Taleban leader Mullah Omar are alive and well.

There is no way of independently verifying the commander's claims.

Gen Musharraf said that his forces had chased al-Qaeda out of the cities into the mountains and then "occupied their sanctuaries".

Terrorism is to be confronted with force. We are doing that, and we have succeeded President Pervez Musharraf

"Terrorism is to be confronted with force. We are doing that, and we have succeeded," Gen Musharraf told a meeting of businessmen in Sydney.

'Root causes

"We have broken the back of al-Qaeda by breaking their lateral and vertical linkages. They are on the run."

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Gen Musharraf's comments come a day after Taleban commander Mullah Akhtar Usmani told Pakistan's privately-run Geo television that he was in touch with Mullah Omar and continued to take directions from him.

Pakistan is on the frontline in the war against terror, with its army hunting suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants in the unruly tribal region of South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

Osama Bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in the area and President Musharraf told journalists in Canberra earlier this week that he was most certainly alive.

"I know that he is alive. Most likely he is alive, yes, because of our information and interrogation of various al-Qaeda operatives that we have apprehended," AFP quoted him as saying.

The US has offered $25m for Osama bin Laden's capture

"Maybe he is in the border region in hiding wherever he sees a vacuum."

Gen Musharraf said that Pakistan could not fight terrorism and extremism alone in the subcontinent.

"We also believe that, along with action to eliminate and dismantle terrorist cells, there is need to address the root causes that lie in political disputes and deprivation and poverty that breed extremism," he said.

The Pakistani president said that a "solution of the Palestinian dispute and also the Kashmir issue" would help in countering al-Qaeda and resolving regional conflicts.