ISLAMABAD, March 31: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistan is in a position to contribute towards world peace and there is a need to eliminate extremism and sectarianism from the society for this purpose.

Speaking at a PTV Newsnight programme on Wednesday (partly covered on Tuesday), Gen Musharraf said Pakistan had a very important role to play at the international level for promoting peace and harmony.

Pakistan, he said, had a vital geo-strategic location to become a centre of regional economic activities. The country, he said, would serve as a major link for trade and economic cooperation between Central Asia, South Asia and the Gulf countries.

The president said one should feel proud of the importance being given to Pakistan at the international level. He said being the only Muslim nuclear power, Pakistan had a role to play in the Islamic world.

He said Pakistan was at a crossroads. "If we manage the issues well, the country can march towards prosperity, otherwise there can be serious damages," he added. There are opportunities as well as pitfalls.

He said there was inter-dependence as the world had become a global village. Besides this, he said, the world had also become a dangerous place due to increase in incidents of terrorism.

The suicide phenomenon had made the situation more dangerous. "This is a lethal weapon in the hands of terrorists," the president added.

He regretted that there were so many disputes in the world and in most of the cases, Muslims were at the receiving end. He said the world was trying to find solutions to these issues.

He said that in his eyes enlightened moderation was the solution to all these issues. "We will have to reject extremism to move towards socio-economic development," he said, adding the whole world was looking towards Pakistan in this regard.

He once again highlighted four negative perceptions being held about Pakistan by other nations. It is believed that Pakistan is supporting terrorism in Afghanistan and Kashmir, is involved in nuclear proliferation and promoting extremism and fundamentalism within the country.

"We have to clear these misperceptions," he said. The president stressed the need for unity within the nation to enable it to come out of this difficult situation.

He said the government had prepared a strategy to tackle sectarianism and extremism. Reiterating Pakistan's commitment to fight extremism, he said the country would not allow any foreign elements to misuse its territory for actions against any other country or against Pakistan.

He said several controversies regarding the ongoing operation in Wana were being generated through media. He said the operation against foreign terrorists in Wana was in Pakistan's own national interests and the country was not acting against extremists on the direction of the US.

He said these foreigners were spreading terrorism in other countries as well as in Pakistan. "These people have made Pakistan an ammunition depot," Gen Musharraf said and vowed to use full force against them.

He criticized the MMA leadership specially mentioning Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Prof Khurshid Ahmed, for spreading misleading information about these foreign terrorists. He said the MMA leaders should know that these foreigners were not innocent people and they had pushed the nation into a serious crisis.

President Musharraf said the government was focused on bringing the federally-administered tribal areas into the mainstream of national life through a number of uplift projects initiated for their socio-economic development.

The president said that he had a plan to infuse dynamism among the youth, and would be visiting various towns and cities to meet students. He said he would also like to vitalize the religious affairs ministry and bring in enlightened Islamic scholars to serve on the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) so as to launch a campaign to remove misconceptions about Islam among the masses.

He said he would prefer to help the institution of the madressah rather than demolish it, because these institutions catered to thousands of poor children with boarding and lodging facilities.

"We will give them funds and teachers to enable them to teach modern subjects as well. I have asked the Ulema and Mashaiks to send their students to board examinations so that they could go ahead in life, become doctors and engineers and even get scholarship," he added.

The president said he was focusing on agriculture sector for reducing poverty and, in this connection, he said a number of dams which the government building would come on stream in a matter of two to four years and this would help immensely in poverty alleviation efforts.

He also referred to the recent visit of Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto, who he said had given him some ideas on how to launch some radical reforms through which poverty could be reduced in the shortest possible time.

He hinted that the government was studying De Soto's proposal and in this respect, he also referred to efforts to computerize information on property and property rights.