WASHINGTON, Sept 10 Former president Gen Pervez Musharraf has urged the US to give drone aircraft to Pakistan so it can take out top terror suspects without the help of the West.

In an interview to FOX News on Wednesday evening, Mr Musharraf said that when he joined the United States in fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda after 9/11, he acted for the good of his country — not for US benefit.

“It was not for United States alone ... it was for Pakistan,” he said. “(W)e are a progressive, moderate people, so it was very clear that we cannot accept” the Talibanisation of the country.

He said the decision to turn against the Taliban was an 'easy decision'. “They were roaming around our cities and causing terrorist attacks in our cities and all over, and we had to eliminate that.”

Mr Musharraf said that Al Qaeda had been significantly diminished in Pakistan, but the Taliban were thriving. Yet he believed that the unmanned aircraft the US used to target key militants in Pakistan should be handed over to his country.

“They have been very controversial always,” he said. “I personally believe that drones should be given to Pakistan because the sensitivity is American troops or any foreign troops coming into Pakistan.”

Mr Musharraf also said he had doubts whether Osama bin Laden had survived the eight harsh years since 9/11.

“There is even a doubt whether he is alive,” he told FOX News. “Because right in the beginning he was a dialysis patient, he was a kidney patient; therefore I wonder if he is alive.”

He said he believed a combination of military might and political solutions would ultimately destroy the Taliban, a disparate band of militants with no front line. The Taliban, he said, were digging their own grave by making Pakistanis turn away from them.

He cited the situation in Swat valley, where the Taliban had a stronghold but were recently defeated by the army.