NEW YORK, Feb 10: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Monday lamented that his personal and social activities had been restricted since two assassination attempts against him in December.

"All that activity unfortunately has been stopped," he told the New York Times correspondents who interviewed him. "That hurts me. I am not an introvert. I am not a man sitting at home. I was always more active."

"I'm not scared. You might find it very odd, but I am not scared." His caution, he told the paper, is for the sake of the country. Did that mean that he saw himself as uniquely qualified to lead Pakistan at this point in history? "I would like to believe that," he responded.

The president described the things he missed: Coffee at the Marriott. Barbecue dinners with friends at the Pearl Continental Hotel. Picking up paan, a South Asian blend of mints and spices, made specially for him by a local shopkeeper.

The paper said: "In the past two years, President Musharraf has become, perhaps more than any Muslim leader, a bridge, or a pivot, between Islam and the West.

He leads a country that has produced more than its share of Islamic militants, yet is a crucial ally in the American campaign against those militants."