BEIJING, Oct 18: Islamabad wants to talk to the next US administration about boosting investment in border regions hit by militant violence,

Chinese state media quoted President Asif Ali Zardari as saying.

Pakistan’s relations with the United States are strained after US forces in Afghanistan carried out cross-border strikes on Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan.

Washington wants Pakistan to stop the free flow of militants from its near-lawless border states into Afghanistan to join the Taliban insurgency but Islamabad is wary of provoking a backlash.

The official China Daily newspaper quoted Mr Zardari as saying Islamabad would encourage investment in the troubled regions and try to win more preferential treatment for their products in US markets.

“We are looking for a dialogue when the new US administration comes into being. And we are going to work firmly for the signing of a FTA (Free Trade Agreement) for these regions,” Mr Zardari said.

But Mr Zardari said that militancy in Pakistan was it’s “own problem”, the paper said.“It is basically our own war. It has been wrongly described as America’s war,” he said. President Zardari also said eradicating poppy production was the key to fighting terrorism in the region, and that poppy growers in Pakistan should be persuaded to grow corn to take advantage of rising prices linked to the growing ethanol industry.

“(Poppy production) is one of the major problems because it finances terrorism,” Mr Zardari said.—Reuters