Musharraf, Karzai meet ahead of anti-terror talks

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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf (left), shakes hands with Afghan officials at the Kabul International Airport in Kabul Sunday.

KABUL, Aug 12 (AFP): Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf met his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Kabul Sunday before both leaders were due to close a four-day tribal assembly on the growing Taliban and Al-Qaeda threat.
Musharraf travelled to the presidential palace immediately after flying into Kabul for a one-day visit, the Afghan president's office said.
The leaders were due later to address the "peace jirga" in the west of the city, where tribal leaders were working on a "joint strategy" to root out extremists, a jirga spokesman said earlier Sunday.
The jirga, the first of its kind, has brought together about 700 tribal leaders and clerics from the volatile border as well as parliamentarians to debate ways to root out extremists.
They began deliberations Thursday with the notable absence of Musharraf, who pulled out at the last-minute citing security concerns.
But the Pakistani president reversed his decision after phone calls from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Karzai,
Delegates to the assembly had earlier split into committees focused on topics such as the reasons for terrorism, the fight against drugs -- said to finance militants -- and good neighbourliness, spokesman Asif Nang said.
The results of these findings were to go towards the formation of the strategy, expected to be announced Sunday before Musharraf and Karzai were to formally close the meeting, he said.
Recommendations are likely to include the establishment of a joint commission to analyse factors fuelling terrorism and another on fighting the drugs trade and organised crime, Afghan media reported Sunday.
Analysts have said the strategy may not immediately do much to stem the growing Islamist violence and the meeting is likely to result in little more than pledges of "brotherliness."
But it could bode well for longer-term cooperation, they said.
Two of Pakistan's seven tribal areas refused to send delegates, citing the lack of Taliban representation and saying there could be no solution without the hardline Islamist group.
Karzai said at a luncheon Saturday with Pakistani officials that the jirga would cement relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a news report said.
"Assembling leaders and public opinion makers from both the countries to discuss and share their views on core issues is a good omen for peace and harmony in the region," a Pakistan news agency quoted him saying.
In Islamabad, foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP: "Pakistan is very hopeful that this jirga will contribute to establishing peace in these areas."
"We believe that stability and peace in Afghanistan is of vital importance to Pakistan."
The neighbours have long been bickering over the violence, each accusing the other of not doing enough against Islamist leaders and sanctuaries.
Relations between Karzai and Musharraf have in particular been strained over the resurgence of the Taliban, which was driven from government by a US-led coalition in 2001 after having been helped to power by Pakistan in 1996.