By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Friday, September 22, 2006; 12:38 PM

-- Text of President Bush and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions.

BUSH: Thank you very much.

Please be seated.

Laura and I appreciate the opportunity to welcome President and Mrs. Musharraf here to Washington.

We remember, fondly, Mr. President, your great hospitality in Pakistan.

And we remember the importance of that visit. It reconfirmed our friendship, gave you and me a chance to discuss important issues. And there's no more important issue than defending our peoples.

This president is a strong defender of freedom and the people of Pakistan.

And I appreciate your leadership.

He understands that we are in a struggle against extremists who will use terror as a weapon. He understands it just about as good as anybody in the world. After all, they've tried to take his life.

These extremists who can't stand the thought of a moderate leader leading an important country like Pakistan want to kill the president. That should say things to the people of Pakistan and the people of America, that because he has been a strong, forceful leader, he has become a target of those who can't stand the thought of moderation prevailing.

I admire your leadership.

MUSHARRAF: Thank you.

BUSH: I admire your courage. And I thank you very much for working on common strategies to protect our respective peoples.

We had a good discussion here today. We talked about how our intelligence cooperation can continue.

I want to remind the people of Pakistan and the people of America that because of the good work of our intelligence forces and Pakistani intelligence forces, as we helped people in the United Kingdom, we prevented the loss of innocent life.

That kind of cooperation is necessary in a world in which extremists and radicals are willing to achieve political objectives.

We talked about the earthquake recovery.

And our nation was proud to support you, Mr. President, because we care when we see people suffering.

And I was briefed by you and your administration when I was there. And I was impressed by the great organization and compassion shown for the Pakistani people by your government.

I hope all is going well, particularly for those who suffered mightily.

We talked about economic development and the need to move forward on reconstruction opportunity zones as well as a bilateral investment treaty.

In other words, our relationship is more than just helping to secure our respective homelands. Ours is a relationship that recognizes that, through economic prosperity, people can embetter themselves.

We had a very interesting briefing on the federally administered tribal areas. The governor of the areas are with us here. And he briefed me and members of my national security team on the strategy to strengthen governance and to promote economic development.

We talked about education. The first time I ever met President Musharraf, he talked about the need to make sure the school systems in Pakistan worked well.

I was impressed then; I'm impressed now by your commitment to an education system that prepares students for the _ and gives students the skills necessary to compete in a global economy.

We talked about democracy. The last time I was with the president, he assured me, and assured the people that were listening to the news conference, that there would be free and fair elections in Pakistan in 2007.

He renewed that commitment, because he understands that the best way to defeat radicalism and extremism is to give people a chance to participate in the political process of a nation.

We talked about India and the president's relations with India. I was pleased to see that in Havana, President Singh and President Musharraf had another discussion.

I think it's very important that the issue of Kashmir move forward and be resolved peacefully. And I appreciate your efforts, Mr. President.

We talked, of course, about Afghanistan, and how President Musharraf and President Karzai and I will have dinner right here in the White House next week.

And it's going to be an important discussion. It's going to be an important discussion because one of the most important avenues for peace is for Afghanistan to succeed.

And it's in our mutual interests that we work together to help that country that's been devastated by war succeed.

And so I look forward to our trilateral discussion, Mr. President. It's going to be a good one, and it's going to be an interesting one. And it's an important discussion.

All in all, we've had yet another good meeting between people who are able to speak frankly with each other and people who share the common desire for our people to live in security and peace.

Welcome.

MUSHARRAF: Thank you very much.

(inaudible) I would like to, first of all, express my gratitude, and also on behalf of my entire delegation, for the warmth and hospitality that we have received and many courtesies that are being extended to us since our arrival in the United States.

I had an excellent meeting with President Bush. We, first of all, reinforced our trust and confidence in each other. I trust President Bush and I have total confidence in him that he desires well for Pakistan and for our region.

And I trust him also that he's trying to do his best for bringing peace to the world.

And I trust him also that he's trying to resolve the core issue of the Palestinian dispute.

We discussed the entire gambit of relations bilaterally, between the United States and Pakistan, and also in our region and on international issues.

Bilaterally, we reinforced our desire to have this relationship on a long-term basis, broad-based, and a strategic relationship.

When we are talking of broad-based, whatever the president has said, it involves all aspects which we discussed. It has its political and diplomatic aspects, which we reinforced; and, then, our desire to fight terrorism and succeed against terrorism.

Other than that, issues in the social sector, on the economy; whatever assistance is being given to us; whatever assistance we require, our requests on that, especially in the field of trade and investment, which are the main areas which we require assistance in.

Otherwise, on a broad-based level, assistance in the education and health sector; on the defense side, the F-16 deal _ all this was discussed.

On the regional issues, on the international plain, we did discuss the core issue of the Palestinian dispute, which needs to be resolved and being at the core.

And I am extremely glad that the president has a desire and a will to resolve this Palestinian dispute. I wish him very well, because that lies at the heart of all problems; even at the heart of terrorism and extremism.

MUSHARRAF: On the regional side, in our region, we also discussed the rapprochement going on between Pakistan and India. And I proudly told the president that we had _ I had an excellent meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana. And it was step forward toward resolution of disputes between India and Pakistan. I did tell him on the way forward that we are moving on the Kashmir dispute especially.

Coming on the other side, we had an in-depth discussion on what is happening in Afghanistan in our tribal agency. They are _ I explained to him, whatever we are doing in the form of the peace treaty that we have just signed through a grand jurga, which is an assembly of elders.

This treaty is not to deal with the Taliban. It is actually to fight the Taliban. The misperception in the media, I did clarify to the president, and may I very briefly say, and what I explained to the president, that this is a holistic approach that we are taking to fighting terrorism in Pakistan, in the tribal agencies of Pakistan.

This is a political side of the holistic strategy, the holistic strategy being the military arm being used, a political element, an administrative element and a reconstruction element.

So we want to move, on all these aspects, forward.

Confining myself to this deal, this deal is not at all with the Taliban. As I said, this is against the Taliban, actually. This deal is with the tribal elders of North Waziristan agency.

And the deal has three bottom lines, which we fixed for ourselves. And this is very important, which I explained to the president.

Number one, there will be no al-Qaida activity in our tribal agencies or across the border in Afghanistan. There will be no Taliban activity in our tribal agencies or across in Afghanistan.

There will be no Talibanization, which is obscurantist thoughts or way of life _ no Talibanization.

All these three have been agreed by the tribal areas who signed that deal. And when they sign the deal, they are honor-bound _ and they have a very strict honor code _ to not only abide by it, but also that whoever violates it, they move against them.

So this is, in brief, the deal, which I explained to the president. And I know that he is satisfied with that deal. And maybe this shows the light or the way forward for bringing peace to the region.

So this is what we discussed holistically.

And I would like to conclude by saying we had a total understanding of views between President Bush and myself. And, as I said, we reinforced our trust and confidence in each other.

Thank you very much.

BUSH: Good job.

Two questions apiece.

Q: Mr. President, after 9/11, would the United States have actually attacked Pakistan if President Musharraf had not agreed to cooperate with the war on terrorism? He says that the United States was threatening to bomb his country back into the Stone Age.

And, President Musharraf, would Pakistan have given up its backing of the Taliban if this threat had not come from Armitage?

BUSH: First, let me _ she's asking about the Armitage thing. The first I've heard of this is when I read it in the newspaper today. You know, I was _ I guess I was taken aback by the harshness of the words.

All I can tell you is that shortly after 9/11, Secretary Colin Powell came in and said, President Musharraf understands the stakes and he wants to join and help root out an enemy that has come and killed 3,000 of our citizens.

Matter of fact, my recollection was that one of the first leaders to step up and say that the stakes have changed, that attack on America that killed 3,000 of the citizens needs to be dealt with firmly, was the president.

And if I'm not mistaken, Colin told us that, if not the night of September the 11th, shortly thereafter. And I need to make sure I get my facts straight, but it was soon.

I don't know of any conversation that was reported in the newspaper like that. I just don't know about it.

MUSHARRAF: I would like to _ I am launching my book on the 25th, and I am honor-bound to Simon Schuster not to comment on the book before that day. So ...

BUSH: In other words, Buy the book, is what he's saying.

Q: My question is for the U.S. president.

BUSH: Yes.

Q: Your Excellency, President Musharraf has issued a call for building bridges and promoting interfaith harmony between the West and the Islamic world, which is in the upheaval and in complete turmoil.

Q: So your comments of Islamic fascists and the comments of the pope have inflamed the Islamic world. And my question is would you take the leading role, along with President Musharraf, to build these bridges and promote interfaith harmony to avoid any wrong version of class of civilizations, sir?

BUSH: I appreciate the president's leadership in promoting harmony.

There is unbelievable propaganda in the Middle East these days that try to inflame passion. The propagandists are attempting to create conditions where terror is justified.

And so at my speech at the United Nations, I stood up and said loud and clear, America respects Islam. And we do.

We don't respect people who kill in the name of Islam to achieve political objectives like the terrorists do.

As a matter of fact, these extremists exploit propaganda in order to justify their behavior.

All of us need to step up and talk about a world in which we respect each other's religions. As a matter of fact, it's very important for Muslims around the world to know there's a lot of Muslims living at peace here in the United States. They are proud Americans, and they're equal to me as a citizen, and we respect their religions.

I repeat to you, however, that the free world and the moderate world must stand up to these extremists and not let them spread their hateful propaganda, not let them try to incite people to acts of violence. Because these extremists are not only against Western people, they're also against moderate people.

And the president's reaching out to help understand _ the world to understand that the Muslim religion is a peaceful religion is very important.

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