Pakistan's Musharraf says meeting with Bush, Karzai had "positive" results

Pakistan's president on Thursday said three-way talks in Washington with his U.S. and Afghan counterparts had "positive results" and Pakistan and Afghanistan decided to increase cooperation in fighting terrorism.

Photo: Pakistan's Musharraf says meeting with Bush, Karzai had "positive" results

After arriving in London, Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday's dinner meeting with President George W. Bush and attended by Afghan leaderHamid Karzai was "held in a very good atmosphere, in a pleasant atmosphere."

Musharraf's comments during a press conference contrasted with criticisms made by both him and Karzai against each other in recent days over efforts to combat Taliban and al-Qaida-led violence in their neighboring countries.

"The meeting that I held with President Bush and Hamid Karzai last night was very good," Musharraf said in comments aired live on Pakistani TV. "It was decided that we should have a common strategy. We have to fight terrorism. We have to defeat it, defeat it jointly."

Musharraf said that it was decided that Afghanistan and Pakistan should have better intelligence coordination and interaction so that "we can meet the challenges" of fighting militants.

"In this way it had good results and I think, God willing, there will be no opposition like this in the future," he said.

Following the dinner hosted by Bush, Karzai and Musharraf attended a press conference with the U.S. leader, at which Bush was the only person to speak. Musharraf and Karzai also shook the U.S. leader's hand but failed to shake each other's, reports AP.

The frosty display followed days of finger-pointing by both leaders, who are key U.S. allies in the war on terror. Karzai has accused Pakistan of not doing enough to curb Islamic schools that produce militants, while Musharraf said the Afghan leader was ignoring large sectors of his war-ravaged country's population.