September 15, 2002	Sunday	Rajab 7, 1423

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NEW YORK, Sept 14: President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that Pakistan and Afghanistan had decided to establish an anti-terror hotline to share information with each other about Al Qaeda and other related matters.

Talking to a group of Pakistani journalists, President Musharraf said the proposal to set up a hotline was put forward by Afghan President Hamid Karzai during the meeting of the two leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session earlier on Friday.

President Musharraf said he and President Karzai agreed to hold quarterly summit meetings on regular basis, while senior officials would have weekly contacts as the two countries join their efforts to fight extremist elements threatening both the governments.

President Musharraf also participated in a UN meeting on Afghanistan which was attended by the United States, Russia and several other leaders who met President Hamid Karzai for nearly two hours of closed-door talks.

But the meeting could not take any decision on Hamid Karzai’s plea that the operations of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) now confined to Kabul, should be expanded to other Afghan cities.

A statement issued after the meeting said the participating governments “reaffirmed their firm commitment to help provide a secure environment in Afghanistan.”

But the statement was silent on Karzai’s plea for the force’s mandate to be expanded.

“There were positive remarks by some of the gentlemen that spoke about the expansion of the ISAF (but) no concrete decision on that, just remarks,” Karzai told reporters after the meeting.