ISLAMABAD, June 23: President General Pervez Musharraf telephoned his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai for a second time in a week on Thursday, officials said. The call came two days after the president first spoke to Mr Karzai to defuse a war of words over Pakistan’s alleged failure to curb Taliban attacks from its soil.

“The president has again assured Mr Karzai that Pakistan is not involved in any incident in Afghanistan,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP.

“We have a deep interest in the stability of Afghanistan and the Karzai government,” he said.

Mr Karzai’s spokesman Jawed Ludin said earlier this week that militants were receiving training from camps in Pakistan to launch attacks in Afghanistan in the run-up to legislative polls in September.

“There are some people around Mr Karzai who never waste any opportunity to level false allegations against Pakistan,” the information minister said.

The relations between Islamabad and Kabul have also flared after three Pakistanis were arrested in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday for allegedly plotting to kill outgoing US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

“It is unjust to blame a government for the individual acts. If they (Afghanistan) have caught someone committing a crime in their territory they should proceed against them,” the information minister added.—AFP