Bush arrives in Pakistan to protests

Members of the Jamiat Talaba Arabia march on a street during an anti-western protest in Muzaffarabad. Picture / Reuters

ISLAMABAD - A nationwide strike called by Islamist parties paralysed Pakistan today hours before US President George W. Bush arrived for talks in which he is expected to urge greater efforts against Islamist militants.

Bush flew in with his wife, Laura, aboard Air Force One to a military airbase near Islamabad from Pakistan's old rival India, where he called for the South Asian neighbours to settle their decades old dispute over the Kashmir region.

His visit a day after a suicide car bomber killed an American diplomat and two other people in the city of Karachi has angered Islamists opposed to the US-led war on terrorism and President Pervez Musharraf's support for the campaign.

Speaking in India shortly before he left, Bush said he and Musharraf, who he is due to meet tomorrow, would discuss efforts to tackle militancy.

"I will meet with President Musharraf to discuss Pakistan's vital cooperation in the war on terror and our efforts to foster economic and political development so we can reduce the appeal of radical Islam," he said.

Bush also gave reason for Pakistani opposition groups to hope that Washington will push Musharraf, who came to power in a military coup seven years ago, to move faster to strengthen democratic institutions ahead of a general election next year.

"I believe that a democratic, prosperous Pakistan will be a steadfast partner for America, a peaceful neighbour for India and a force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world."

A White House official later said Bush meant to say "Muslim world".

Bush has said he would ask Musharraf, who has survived several assassination attempts by al Qaeda-linked groups, to do more to shut down militant camps on Pakistani soil and stop cross-border infiltration -- something the Afghan and Indian leaders he met earlier on his tour have complained of.

In New Delhi, Bush agreed to provide India with US technical know-how for civilian nuclear power. No such goodies were in store for Pakistan which, like India, has nuclear arms, though he was expected to seek ways to expand trade.

Police in the city of Karachi fired teargas to disperse hundreds of protesters trying to march on the US consulate where yesterday a suicide car bomber killed himself and three other people including a US diplomat.

Dozens of protesters were detained after they threw stones at police vehicles a kilometre (half a mile) from the mission.

The largest protest was in Multan in the central Punjab province where the opposition leader in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, addressed a 10,000-strong crowd.

The Muslim cleric told the protesters Bush's visit was aimed at "enslaving the Pakistani nation and rewarding General Musharraf for his patriotism to America".

White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters in India that Bush's visit to Pakistan, a nation shown by polls to be among the most anti-American in the world, was not risk-free.

The suicide bomb attack in Karachi, and promise of more protests by Islamists, prompted authorities to strengthen security in Islamabad, a small, quiet, wooded city.

"We revisited the whole plan again, but it was already a foolproof plan so a little bit of beefing up has been done," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said.

Protests, ostensibly over cartoons deemed blasphemous of the Prophet Mohammad that originated in Denmark, were supported by government and opposition parties alike.

But it is Pakistan's pro-militant political Muslim clerics who have made most capital over an issue they have used to whip up anti-American and anti-Musharraf sentiment during the past month of often violent demonstrations.

- REUTERS