BEIJING, Dec 23: President Pervez Musharraf has given a ringing endorsement of new Afghan leader Hamid Karzai as the head of the UN-backed administration got down to the business of rebuilding his war-ravaged land.

“I think he is an extremely able personality. He is the right choice to lead the interim government,” Musharraf said of Karzai in an interview broadcast on Sunday by Chinese state television.

“He has the potential and he has the desire and also he has the support...of everyone, I think,” said Musharraf, on the fourth day of a five-day visit to China.

He said he had spoken with Karzai several times and expected to meet him soon.

Three million Afghan refugees are in border camps or cities in Pakistan, whose economy was hit hard by cancelled orders and slumping trade after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, the president said.

The refugees should be sent back as UN-led reconstruction gets going, he said.

“One would like to shift all of them gradually, in a graduated form, back into Afghanistan,” Musharraf said.

The President said Pakistan was bound by geography to work with its landlocked neighbour, traditionally dependent on trade through Pakistani ports.

“We have to interact with each other in a harmonious manner. There is no choice between the two countries,” he said.

He also said the Afghan people should determine their own future.

“You can’t impose a solution in Afghanistan, you can only facilitate.”—Reuters