September 4, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Saani25,1423

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TEHRAN, Sept 3: Iranian Interior Minister Abdolvahed Musavi-Lari called on Pakistan on Tuesday to do more to prevent fugitive Al Qaeda fighters from entering Iran, state radio said.

“Musavi-Lari demanded that Pakistan cooperate more to prevent Al Qaeda members from entering Iranian territory” during talks with his visiting Pakistani counterpart Moinuddin Haider, the radio said.

The Iranian interior minister added that the neighbours had formed a committee to deal with “problems at the border”.

For his part Haider insisted that Pakistan was doing all within its power to stop fugitive fighters crossing the border, the radio said.

“We do all we can to prevent members of Al Qaeda and other wrongdoers from entering Iran’s territory,” it quoted the Pakistani minister as saying.

The talks between the two ministers came as US press reports that Tehran was sheltering Al Qaeda leaders prompted Washington to issue an stern warning to the Iranian government.

“We would call on and urge the Iranian government not to offer any terrorists a safe haven,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last Wednesday.

His comments came after the Washington Post reported that two top Al Qaeda leaders, Saif al-Adel and Mahfouz Ould Walid, were hiding out in Iranian cities close to the Afghan border, along with dozens of the group’s fighters.

Iran has strongly denied the report.

Apart from Al Qaeda, the Iranian and Pakistani ministers also discussed how to combat drug trafficking, banditry and ethnic unrest on their common border, state radio said.—AFP