LONDON, July 31: President Pervez Musharraf has told a London paper that Britain is regarded as a safe haven by extremists because it has failed to crack down on them despite urging other countries to do so.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, the president suggested that Britain had paid a price for putting the right of free speech before the need to curb militant organizations that openly advocated violence.

He said the British government itself had failed to do what it had been ‘demanding of us to do’ — banning extremist groups.

In particular, President Musharraf said, Britain should have banned Al-Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahrir.

“They could have banned these two groups. Good action is when you foresee the future and pre-empt and act beforehand, instead of reacting as in the case of Britain — which waited for the damage to be done and is now reacting to it.”

According to The Sunday Times, the president said that while he had already implemented sweeping measures, much remained to be done in Britain.

He said that many people around the world found it convenient to leave their countries and go to Britain, which they regarded as a safe haven as it wanted to project itself as a champion of human rights.

“But now they (Britain) have to reconsider and take action against these groups.”

He condemned the London bombers as the “people who needed to be eliminated”, and rejected suggestions that the outrage might have been masterminded from Pakistan because three of the bombers were British nationals of Pakistani parentage. “They came on their British passports — what do you expect us to do? Prevent British passport holders from entering?

“The British government should look at those it has given passports to and we should look at those entering our country.”

Pakistani intelligence services were still trying to verify whether one of the bombers had attended a madressah in Pakistan, he said. “If he has gone to a madressah we will take action against that madressah.”

He revealed that Pakistani investigators were using telephone records provided by London police to interview everyone who the two of the bombers had called there from Britain. “We are going through each of those numbers,” he said. “It is a little premature to draw conclusions. It is a very tedious job.”

President Musharraf renewed calls to resolve the Palestinian and Kashmiri disputes which he regarded as being at the root of terrorism affecting the entire world. “If we don’t do this we will fail the region and the world,” he said.

He also said that efforts were under way to arrest Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of the Jaish-i-Mohammed group which Shahzad Tanveer is believed to have contacted.