NEW YORK, Sept 16: President Pervez Musharraf advised the international community on Friday to focus on seeking a resolution to the Iraq dispute instead of criticizing President Bush’s decision to invade that country. “He has already attacked Iraq and he is not going to attack it again,” said Mr Musharraf when a student at New York’s Columbia University suggested that Mr Bush’s decision had contributed to the rise of terrorism.

“I am not a man who gets bogged down in history. Whether the decision was right or wrong, let’s see what to do now,” said the president.

“I believe that President Bush wants to withdraw troops not only from Iraq but also from Afghanistan, and he also has a strong desire to resolve the Palestinian dispute,” Gen Musharraf said.

The president, who was addressing the university’s students and faculty, said the issues of Kashmir and Palestine were “ripe for resolution” and the international community needed to take immediate steps to resolve them.

“Disputes like these, particularly the Palestinian issue, are the root cause of terrorism and extremism. Today’s leaders need to find a way to resolve them,” he said.

The president also said that political deprivation, and not religion, caused disputes like Chechnya, Palestine and Kashmir and unless steps were taken to end this deprivation, violence will never end.

“Today’s leaders require boldness, sincerity and flexibility to resolve these issues. Boldness is important. Sincerity alone cannot work,” he said.

When a student blamed the ISI for continuing to stir trouble in Afghanistan and the bordering areas of Pakistan, Gen Musharraf said it was regrettable that certain people in the US were not prepared to believe Pakistan’s assurance that it was doing whatever it could to curb terrorism.

“If you are not prepared to believe me, I cannot make you do so but you should look at what we have done,” said the president, adding that Pakistan “has so far arrested” more than 700 Al Qaeda operatives, including some key leaders. More than 250 Pakistani soldiers died while fighting the terrorists, he added.

“If Pakistan is not doing enough to fight terrorism, who the hell in the world is,” he asked.

The president said that the proposed fence for preventing infiltration of extremists into Afghanistan would only cover selective areas and would be manned by Pakistani troops.

Gen Musharraf had conveyed his proposal for building a fence along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New York earlier this week. The US has warmly welcomed the proposal but Afghanistan has remained silent.

Tracing the history of extremism in Pakistan, the president said that during the Afghan war 30 to 40 thousand Mujahideen were brought to the country to fight the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan.

“We also saw the emergence of the Taliban and the arrival of Al Qaeda fighters from all over the Islamic world,” he said, adding that some of these warriors moved their bases “to the comfort of our mountains and cities” after the Soviet withdrawal.

The president said that for 22 years the region witnessed fighting and devastation, forcing four million Afghan refugees to seek shelter in Pakistan.

The international community, he said, only recognized this problem after 9/11.