NEW YORK, June 19: President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday that the war on Iraq had done lasting damage to America’s relations with the Muslim world because political disputes had taken the “colour of a religious dispute” as a consequence.

In an interview with the Financial Times published in its US edition, Gen Musharraf, when asked “Do you think the Iraq war did lasting damage to America’s relations with the Muslim world?”, said: “Yes. It has certainly aroused the feelings of the Muslim world. Unfortunately, all that is happening around the world, all the political disputes — one talks of Kosovo or Bosnia or Chechnya or Palestine or Afghanistan or Kashmir or Iraq — involve Muslims.”

He noted that “the unfortunate effect has been that people in the Muslim world have started thinking that Islam as a religion is being targeted.”

“Now this is the unfortunate part. They are all political disputes, but they have taken a colour of a religious dispute,” Gen Musharraf said, adding “the talk of some clash of civilization and all that has compounded the issue further.”

In response to a question about the American request for troops for peacekeeping operations in Iraq, Gen Musharraf said: “We have been asked and in principle we would like to contribute troops — in principle, but then we are studying this from all angles and we will take a decision later.”

Asked as to what kind of umbrella could such troops deployment have, OIC or the United Nations, he said: “One has to look at the domestic sensitivities to this. One has to look at the international scenario and then there are financial aspects.”

On the question about Pakistani troops for Saudi Arabia, the president said no request for such troops had been made by the Saudi government. However, he added, “If we are asked, yes. We have very close relations with Saudi Arabia, always had. And if at all Saudi Arabia asks us, we would be willing to send troops there.”

President Musharraf, who arrives here on Friday afternoon on a 10-day US trip, told the FT that he would seek cancellation of the $1.8 billion remaining US debt. “Let’s see whether I succeed.”

On the question whether western countries should do more to alleviate Pakistan’s debt burden, Gen Musharraf said: “Now there’s no end to expecting for more, because of course we need budgetary assistance, we need assistance for poverty alleviation. Therefore we do seek debt relief, we do seek debt write-offs.”

“I’ve been asking always, and may I say the achievements — when we took over our debts were at $38bn increasing at the rate of $1.5bn to $2bn per annum. So therefore in three years if previous practice continued we would have gone to about $44bn of debt. In these three years we have reduced the debt from $38bn to $35bn.”

On the question about his donning two hats — that of Army COAS and the President — Gen Musharraf said: “I have no doubt that in principle I need to remove one of the hats, and I will do that the moment I’m sure that the democratic process stabilizes, when our institutions stabilize, the country functions normally, I will remove that hat.”

He added: “I don’t want to lay time-frames. But the nation is very clear, whenever I give a time-frame, whenever I say something, I do it. Over these three years I proved exactly whatever I said, I did it. By the day, to the day, accurately I did whatever I said and I made a number of promises and I’ve delivered on each one of them.”

“I gave you a roadmap for democratization, I stuck it to the last word, last element. When you talk of time-frames, if I give a time-frame and I don’t adhere to it that would be too bad, so I believe in saying something which I will agree to,” he said.

On the slow progress in the peace process with India on which he had commented extensively, the president said: “In fact we’re urging everyone to accelerate. We are for accelerating this process. We have suggested seven confidence-building measures to India in reply to the two that Prime Minister Vajpayee of India, when he spoke about re-establishing our contacts on the high commissioners’ level and opening the airspace — we gave seven in exchange and we are awaiting a reply from their side.”

While expressing his “apprehension “ over the slow process due to the Indian side, Musharraf expressed hope that United States would remain involved “so that we enter into a composite dialogue on all issues, with Kashmir as the focus. Because Kashmir is the main issue on which we have had so many conflicts.”

Q: We’ve seen recently that the US regards India as much more of a friend than during the Cold War, and we’ve also seen China improving its relationship with India. In the aftermath of the Afghan conflict are you worried that Pakistan is being left out, now that the US is making other friends in the region? Do you feel nervous that what you’ve done is not going to be appreciated in Washington?

A: No, not at all. I don’t worry, I see realities on ground, every nation has its national interest. Pakistan by merely its location, its strategic location and other geostrategic issues, geopolitical issues, has its potential. It has its potential in the Islamic world, it has its potential in the central Asian republics and Afghanistan.