PESHAWAR, Sept 8: A senior British diplomat said on Friday that Pakistan is not a “source of terrorism,” and praised the country’s role in the international struggle against militancy.

“It was not possible to defeat the Taliban without the support of Pakistan,” Britain’s Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said at a news conference after visiting the town of Torkham near the Afghan border.

“Pakistan is not a source of terrorism,” Howells said. “It is fighting against terrorism.”

Howells’ comments came a day after Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and acknowledged that Taliban and Al Qaeda militants were crossing from Pakistan to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

However, Musharraf on Thursday denied earlier allegations by the Afghan government that Pakistan’s main spy agency was helping the militants.

He also defended his government’s recent agreement with pro-Taliban militants in the North Waziristan tribal region along the Afghan border, saying it was aimed at ensuring peace through a political process instead of fighting.

Under the pact, the militants are to halt attacks on Pakistani forces in the region and stop crossing into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and Afghan forces.

Howells suggested Karzai consider a similar deal on the other side of the border.

“The North Waziristan pact is a good example for Afghanistan,” Howells said.

He urged both countries to work together to fight terrorism, calling it “a common problem for Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Earlier, Pakistani officials at the Torkham border crossing briefed Howells on the area’s tribal customs and history. Britain hails peace accord in Pakistani tribal zone

Mr Howells hailed the peace accord that the Pakistan recently signed with militants and tribal elders in the troubled Afghan border region.

“I think the new peace accord is a great step forward. We are seeing it as an attempt to use a traditional system of monitoring and control,” he said.

“It is an experiment obviously. We have to watch it carefully. It is an exciting move,” Howells added.

Under the deal the government agreed to release those arrested during the army operation and, to facilitate the peace process, had freed more than 130 detained tribesmen and restored privileges of the tribal leaders, officials said.

Among other conditions, it also agreed that new check posts on the region’s roads would be dispensed with and old check posts would be manned by local tribal police.

Pakistan defence minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal has said security forces will continue to hunt militants in tribal areas and the amnesty under the peace deal was not applicable to Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his associates.

The British minister said Afghanistan would be watching the accord carefully, and could institute a similar arrangement.

“There can be no purely military victory. We always try peaceful and diplomatic ways of achieving lasting settlement,” the minister said.—AP/AFP