LONDON, Sept 28: President Pervez Musharraf accepts that Britain is not accusing Pakistan’s intelligence service of backing religious extremism, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday, seeking to defuse a row.

Gen Musharraf had vowed before talks with Prime Minister Blair to protest over a British think-tank report alleging that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) indirectly supported “Islamist extremism in Afghanistan, Iraq and Britain”.

“President Musharraf accepted straight away that this document was not a reflection of British government policy so there was no need to discuss it any further,” a spokesman for Mr Blair told AFP after the talks.

The issue had threatened to cast a shadow over the two-hour meeting at Chequers, the prime ministerial retreat just outside London.

The paper, written for the Defence Academy, a Ministry of Defence think-tank, alleges that the ISI is fanning extremism by secretly backing the coalition of religious parties, the MMA.

Speaking in a BBC interview beforehand, President Musharraf had denied the suggestion.

“Absolutely, 200 per cent, I reject it,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp. “I take exception seriously, and I would like to talk about it (with) Prime Minister Tony Blair when I meet him,” the president said.

The president vowed to help stop the Taliban crossing the border into southern Afghanistan.—AFP