Musharraff Wants Bombing to Stop for Ramadan

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Musharraf says bombing should stop

PARIS: The US-led military attacks on Afghanistan should be stopped
as soon as possible because the whole world sees them as a war
against innocent civilians, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said
on Thursday.

He said he would ask U.S. President George W. Bush to suspend the
bombing during the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, which starts in
mid-November.

Continuing the campaign during Ramzan would cause trouble throughout
the Muslim world, he said.

"It is being perceived in the whole world...as if this were a war
against the poor, miserable and innocent people of Afghanistan,"
Musharraf told a news conference after talks with French leaders in
Paris.

Musharraf is a key ally in Washington's war on terrorism, which Bush
has waged to hunt down Afghan-based militant Osama Bin Laden
following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Musharraf was due to travel to London for talks with British Prime
Minister Tony Blair later on Thursday and from there to the United
States to meet Bush on the fringes of the United Nations General
Assembly.

Pakistan has put military facilities at Washington's disposal for
search and rescue operations in neighbouring Afghanistan, where the
U.S.-led bombing of targets of the ruling Taliban and Bin Laden's
al-Qaida network is in its second month.

The United States has indicated it could continue its campaign during
Ramzan, a month of dawn to dusk fasting.

Musharraf's support to date for Washington, against opposition to the
war in his overwhelmingly Muslim country, has won him strong backing
from Western countries in his bid to reschedule some of Pakistan's
huge $36 billion debt.

President Jacques Chirac told him at a dinner at the Elysee Palace on
Wednesday that France would support "a generous treatment for
Pakistan's debt" in the Paris Club group of Western creditors.

Musharraf also met French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin on Thursday.

"There was total unanimity of views on this issue of Afghanistan and
whatever action we've been taking there to bring peace and normality
to Afghanistan," Musharraf told reporters at Jospin's office.

"On the issue of terrorism there is a total unanimity of view and as
far as our domestic environment is concerned, the economic
difficulties that Pakistan is passing through were indicated to the
prime minister," he said.( REUTERS )
 
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