ON BOARD PRESIDENT'S AIRCRAFT, Oct 1: President General Pervez Musharraf has said that he will visit Sindh and the NWFP to evolve consensus on building the Kalabagh dam.

The country needed both the Kalabagh and Bhasha dams to meet its growing agricultural and industrial requirements, he told newsmen flying home at the conclusion of his two-week visit on Thursday evening.

He said he would visit Sindh and the NWFP to evolve consensus on building the Kalabagh dam. The president described his visit to the United States, the Netherlands and Italy as extremely successful, saying it had afforded an opportunity to project Pakistan's position on international issues effectively and also augmented bilateral ties with those countries.

"My meetings with the leadership of these countries and other world leaders in New York clearly show that Pakistan enjoys a respectable status in the comity of nations, as the world leaders listened to our views and appreciated our efforts for promoting peace and harmony in the world," he said.

President Musharraf said that during his interaction with parliamentarians of these countries, he called for an effective role by the West in the resolution of political disputes facing the world.

"I emphasized the importance of their active participation in the socio-economic development of the Muslim countries in the context of durable peace and progress in the world."

Bilaterally, he said, his discussion on expanding trade and economic ties with the two European countries led to positive results. "The private sectors in both the Netherlands and Italy have shown great interest in business prospects Pakistan offers to them -- I am hopeful that we will be able to attract more investment into the country."

He said that as a mark of growing ties between the two countries Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi would visit Pakistan early next year. The president recalled his address to the UN General Assembly, saying he had called for early resolution of political disputes affecting the Muslim countries, including the Palestinian dispute.

"Poverty is increasing in developing countries, particularly the Muslim states, and the islands of prosperity are shrinking. I urged that the developed world must act before it is too late and an iron curtain descends between the West and Islam."

On his meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, Gen Musharraf said the Pope had appreciated Pakistan's efforts to promote peace and inter-faith harmony.

In reply to a question, the president said he would take the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders into confidence about his recent meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York, where Pakistan and India agreed to explore all possible options for finding an acceptable solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

He said the government was following both military and political channels to flush out Al Qaeda terrorists from the mountainous tribal areas and added that the collateral damage had been 'minimum' in operations against terrorists.

"We target only foreign elements after confirmation of their presence through intelligence sources. Our operations have been precise and we have so far eliminated 100 Al Qaeda operatives, who were hiding in Waziristan," he said. -APP