ISLAMABAD, Sept 4: As many as four countries — France, Germany, UK and China — have offered financial and technical assistance to Pakistan to combat terrorism.

A Chinese delegation led by a vice-minister of public security ministry, Mr Yang Huanning, arrived here on Thursday to discuss the details of his country’s offer in this connection with Pakistani officials.

An official of interior ministry told Dawn that Beijing “has offered all possible support” to Islamabad to combat terrorism and eliminate trans-national crimes.

The official said the Chinese delegation called on Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat at his office to discuss the details of the offer.

The delegation, headed by Mr Yang Huanning, vice-minister of the ministry of public security, is on a three-day visit to Pakistan. The delegation was invited by the government of Pakistan, the official said.

He said the delegation held negotiations with Pakistani sides headed by secretary interior Tasneem Noorani. The two sides discussed the modus operandi to jointly combat the menace of terrorism.

The two sides decided to establish a Joint Working Group of the two ministries to effectively tackle the problems confronting the two countries in terms of border security and smuggling.

The official said Islamabad and Beijing had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for better cooperation between the ministries of the two countries dealing with law and order and border security. The MoU was signed during a visit of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to China earlier this year.

Earlier, talking to our correspondent Ihtashamul Haq Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat confirmed that France, Germany, and UK had also decided to offer substantial financial and technical support to Pakistan for combating terrorism unleashed by the Al Qaeda network.

“We have succeeded in dismantling the Al Qaeda network to a reasonable extent but I do admit that the government has not been able to thoroughly eliminate this international terrorist outfit from our part of the world,” he stated.

He said that it was good to know that after the United States, four more important countries had decided to fully support Pakistan in the war against terror.

Responding to a question, he said that some portion of the $3 billion military and economic package approved for Pakistan by the Bush administration would be spent for countering terrorism.

“But we have been assured additional American financial assistance for setting up more forensic laboratories and check cyber and internet-related crimes.”

In reply to a question, he said that preliminary investigation suggested that Al Qaeda was not involved in recent attacks on national installations like gas pipelines.

Gas pipelines, he pointed out, had been targeted by some tribal people, especially in Balochistan, some of whom were apprehended and investigation against them were currently being conducted by the agencies concerned.

“Nevertheless, the involvement of Al Qaeda cannot be ruled out in one of the recent sabotage acts targeting railway lines,” the minister said.

He was asked to respond to the frequently levelled allegation that the CIA and FBI were independently conducting operations in Pakistan against terrorists and those who were wanted by the US government. He replied thus: “People should know that Pakistan alone cannot get hold of terrorists and we have to have the support of the Americans to achieve the desired results.”

Asked about the Karzai government’s allegation that Taliban were regrouping in Pakistan to create terrorist activities inside Afghanistan, he said Pakistan would not allow anyone to indulge in such activities.