DUBAI, Jan 26 Development programmes in violence-plagued areas of Pakistan are an essential part of the country's fight against militancy, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said here on Tuesday.

“Holding and building violence-affected areas (is) fundamental to achieving a decisive victory against terrorism,” Qureshi said at the Friends of Democratic Pakistan conference.

“All our efforts against terrorism and extremism will come to naught should we fail to address their root causes. Poverty and socio-economic deprivation are being exploited by terrorist outfits to recruit young people into militant organisations,” he added. Mr Qureshi said that failure to address economic problems might sap Pakistani public support for further operations. “If we fail in looking after the local population and their lives do not change for the better, the public support for operations in the Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) region may not hold.”

Pakistan's three-year plan for reconstruction and rehabilitation in Swat, Malakand and other areas affected by violence will cost $300 million, he said, while the country's five-year development plan, based on post-crisis needs assessment, for the same areas carried a $1.2 billion price tag. He termed the amount negligible, especially when compared to billions of dollars being spent in the war in Afghanistan.

He said the Malakand pilot project was endorsed by the FoDP ministerial meeting in Istanbul on Aug 25 last year. “Our FoDP partners should expedite their respective commitments and pledges lest this opportunity of consolidating the gains secured so painstakingly slip away from our hands.”

On the sidelines of the conference, Mr Qureshi said Pakistan was open to dialogue with militants willing to renounce violence. “If there are elements which are willing to shun violence and terrorism, we are open and are willing to accept them into the government -- we are willing to talk to them,” he said. At the forthcoming London conference on Afghanistan, Pakistan wanted to forward the objectives outlined by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Mr Qureshi said. “We want to help Afghanistan fulfil the objectives outlined by President Karzai in his inaugural address.”