WASHINGTON, Sept 13: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that Pakistan is playing an aggressive role in the US efforts to finish off Al Qaeda.

In three separate interviews released by the State Department on Monday, Mr Powell dispelled the impression that the war in Iraq had diverted Washington's attention away from Afghanistan and Al Qaeda.

"We are finishing the job in Afghanistan," said Mr Powell. "Yes, Osama bin Laden is still out there, (but) he's being chased, he's being pursued. "We've got the Pakistanis playing a much more aggressive role in their frontier areas to go after Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants," said the US Secretary of State.

"We didn't take our eyes off the ball in Afghanistan. But Iraq was a danger. The President felt strongly we had to deal with that. We dealt with that, too," said Mr Powell explaining why Washington had invaded Iraq.

"Three years ago," he said, "the Taliban were running Afghanistan, but today Kabul is holding presidential election in early October to be followed by parliamentary elections."

On the third anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, some reports in the US media pointed out that despite the Bush administration's claim to have destroyed Al Qaeda, the terror network was still in tact.

Mr Powell agreed with this observation but said that the recent terror attacks, particularly the death of hundreds of children in Ossetia, "suggest that we have to do even more together to make sure the civilized worlds join together in the war against terrorism".

He admitted that there was apparently no "direct connection between the terrorists who perpetrated these crimes against us on the 11th of September, 2001, and the Iraqi regime".

"We know that there had been connections and there had been exchanges between Al Qaeda and the Saddam Hussein regime and those have been pursued and looked at, but I have seen nothing that makes a direct connection between Saddam Hussein, that awful regime, and what happened on 9/11," he added.

Our Correspondent in New York adds: Mr Powell said the issue of Iran's nuclear programme would have to be dealt with by the United Nations if the country did not keep its commitments to the international community.

He asked the Iranian government to move quickly to satisfy the concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying that the issue would be brought up at the meeting of the world body.

"And we believe that if they (the Iranians) have not satisfied our concerns, the matter should be referred by the IAEA to the Security Council," Mr Powell said. "We don't want to see Iran become another nuclear power. We have enough," he said.