Blair, Musharraf Pledge to Fight Terror

President Bush, center, shakes hands with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, left, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, looks on at the Rose Garden of the White House Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)

LONDON -- The leaders of Britain and Pakistan pledged their commitment Thursday to defeating insurgents in Afghanistan, brushing aside a leaked British military document that claimed Islamabad's security forces are indirectly supporting terrorist groups.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf met for two hours, with both reinforcing their support of a NATO-led mission to support the Kabul government, a Blair spokesman said.

The meeting, at Chequers, Blair's official country residence west of London, followed Musharraf's visit to Washington, where he held talks with President Bush and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

Thursday's meeting had threatened to be overshadowed by a military document obtained by the British Broadcasting Corp. in which a senior officer maintained Pakistan's Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence _ the country's top spy agency _ should be dismantled.

The broadcaster reported the document was written by an unidentified senior researcher at the Defense Academy, a defense ministry think-tank and college.

It said the author was also linked to the intelligence services and the document was part of a private British review of efforts across the world to combat terrorism.

Musharraf rejected that allegations that its security forces had indirectly supported terrorist groups and raised the issue with Blair during their meeting.

"The president accepted that document is not government policy, so there was no further need to discuss it," said a spokesman for Blair's office, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with policy.

He said Blair also assured Musharraf that British troops would remain in Afghanistan for the "long term," as part of the NATO mission.

Musharraf told Blair he recognized the need to continue working to reduce the amount of cross-border activity between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Britain's defense ministry said the material obtained by the BBC was in no way a report or a policy statement.

Instead, the papers were merely research notes taken by an academic to reflect material seen or collected from a variety of sources _ not a collection of facts meant to influence the government's position or policies, a ministry spokeswoman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity in line with department policy.