NEW YORK, Sept 22: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday his government “did far more than our capacity to defuse tension on the Line of Control, to take actions which will build confidence with India. But, unfortunately, there is zero return, I repeat, zero return from the Indian side.”

In an interview with The New York Times he asserted: “When the other side does not deliver, what happens? It is the extremists who get strengthened and moderates who get weakened.”

Speaking about contributing troops to Iraq and the fight against terrorism, Gen Musharraf said his government needed more military and intelligence help from the United States to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and more political support from Iraqis and the Islamic world before it could send troops to help stabilize Iraq.

He underscored that the idea of contributing forces to a multinational contingent authorized by the United Nations in Iraq was extremely unpopular among Pakistanis. “You need to change the domestic viewpoint,” he said, adding that this would happen only when “the United Nations, Muslim countries, Arab countries and Iraqis themselves are asking for Muslim troops.”

The Times said the Pakistani president punctuated the wide-ranging interview with frequent pleas for patience and understanding on many fronts, from Islamabad’s struggle with India over the disputed region of Kashmir to the transformation of Pakistan into a fully democratic state.

President Musharraf argued that his critics had failed to understand the “ground realities” of both the war on terror as it was being waged on Pakistan’s northwestern border and the volatile politics of his nation.

Reacting to the criticism levelled by the NYT in an editorial which said that his government had not done enough in the two-year-old campaign against Al Qaeda and the remnants of the former Taliban government which had many contacts with elements of the Pakistani government in Islamabad, the general argued that progress had been made toward controlling the mountainous tribal regions on Pakistan’s northwestern border with Afghanistan but said his government needed more resources — specifically helicopters — to tighten its control and act on reports of terrorist movements.

“You know, you get the information and you have to react,” he said. “How do you react? Can you go on foot? They’ll know that you’re coming two days before you reach the place. Can you go on vehicles? There are no roads and tracks.

“So, therefore, obviously you have to have aerial mobility, which means helicopters. Helicopters for transport of troops. Helicopter gunships for attack. O.K.? Pakistan is deficient in both. We are trying to get both. And again, US assistance is required. And if there is a delay, let me assure you it is not from our side.”

However, Gen Musharraf said there was good coordination with his American partners. Speaking of the vast, mountainous border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said: “You cannot sweep the area with a military operation. Nobody can do that. The US forces are not doing that on the Afghanistan side also, may I say. They select areas where they launch operations, and these operations are launched with our coordination on this side.”

He also told the paper that Pakistan had full control of its nuclear abilities and was not, to his knowledge, transferring its nuclear technology to Iran or North Korea.

Of the weapons — or “strategic assets,” as he described them — General Musharraf said: “They are in total custodial control. They are totally safe and secure. And there is no danger of them falling into anybody’s hands. And there is a guarantee from our side that there will be no proliferation. In this we don’t need assistance.”