ISLAMABAD, Feb 14: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw held separate meetings with President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz here on Monday.

During his meeting with the president, Mr Straw was informed about confidence-building measures and the composite dialogue process with India.

The president told Mr Straw about Pakistan's key role in the coalition against terrorism. He explained Pakistan's efforts to fight against the root-causes of terrorism, a foreign ministry statement said.

The president emphasized that the strategy evolved by Pakistan to combat poverty hinged on greater market access of Pakistani exports to Europe which could in turn create more jobs and alleviate poverty. The proposed reform of the UN Security Council and the situation in Iraq and the Middle East were discussed. The situation in Afghanistan also came under discussion.

Mr Straw spoke about the admiration and regard in which Britain held the president. He supported Pakistan's counter-terrorism policies and the role it was playing to eliminate extremism.

He assured the president that the UK would continue supporting Pakistan's efforts for rapid socio-economic development. He offered condolences over the loss of lives in floods in Balochistan.

Meeting with AZIZ: Mr Straw held wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Aziz on bilateral issues, regional situation, composite dialogue with India, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East.

"The prime minister briefed the British foreign secretary on the postponement of the recent Saarc summit and said that Pakistan was trying to bring regional cooperation back on track," an official statement said.

He told Mr Straw that Pakistan was trying its utmost to make the dialogue process with India productive and result-oriented. He underlined that dialogue and confidence-building measures must move in tandem. He said time was ripe to look seriously at new corridors of energy which would benefit the entire region.

On the question of GSP+, the foreign secretary said that Britain was trying to be as helpful as possible. "The prime minister stressed the importance that Pakistan attached to its relations with the United Kingdom and the recent high-level exchanges which have maintained the momentum of cooperation in diverse fields and expressed the confidence that the relations between Pakistan and UK will be strengthened in the days ahead," the statement said. The foreign secretary will visit Afghanistan on Tuesday and depart for New Delhi the same evening.