BEIJING, Aug 24: Pakistan is committed to strengthening anti-terror cooperation with China, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Wednesday, questioning reports that her country was a haven for militants blamed for an attack in west China.

She was speaking in Beijing after two days of talks ahead of a planned visit by President Asif Ali Zardari next week to Xinjiang.

Officials in Kashgar, a city in south Xinjiang, said a stabbing attack there in late July was orchestrated by members of the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) who trained in Pakistan before returning to China.

Ms Khar said there were no rifts between Islamabad and Beijing over fighting militants, and cast doubt on the reports about a Pakistan link to the Kashgar attack.

“The statement vis-a-vis Pakistan’s involvement of any sort was misconstrued, was not from the Chinese government,” she told a news conference.

“Does it (ETIM) have any base in Pakistan? We don’t know,” she said, adding that her government would cooperate with China to eradicate such threats.

“We have a wide history of cooperating with the Chinese people to be able to dismantle this group or its presence in any form,” she said.

The foreign minister said security issues brought Islamabad and Beijing closer together, rather than driving them apart.

“We respond to that (issue) by increasing our cooperation in counter-terrorism, increasing our intelligence cooperation,” she added. “We need to make this even more robust.”

China’s Foreign Ministry praised Pakistan as a firm partner against terror and religious extremism, playing down the risk that ties could be strained by the attack. It did not mention any link to the Kashgar attack.

“Pakistan just seeks the world’s understanding for the current challenges that Pakistan is going through.... we are the ones and our people are the ones that are paying the price who are experiencing the brunt of it,” said Ms Khar.

The Pakistani foreign minister, who held talks with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi and met Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, said her country did not want militant groups.

“We have made it clear to our neighbours and we make it clear again that Pakistan has no interest for its territory to be used by any non-state actors against any other country,” she said.

Pakistan’s ambassador in Beijing Masood Khan said President Zardari would visit Xinjiang’s regional capital, Urumqi, next week to attend the China-Eurasia trade fair.—Agencies