Pakistani state is not going to collapse, says Zardari

Pakistani state is not going to collapse, says Zardari

* President calls for international efforts to fight extremism
* Says Taliban threat not Pakistan-specific

WASHINGTON: President Asif Ali Zardari denied on Sunday Pakistan is on the verge of collapse, as top US officials welcomed a military offensive against the Taliban in Swat.

Zardari, in an NBC interview aired after a week of talks in Washington, also demanded a global effort to fight extremism as Afghan President Hamid Karzai said a new surge of US troops in his country had been overdue. “Is the state of Pakistan going to collapse?” Zardari said. “No. We are 180 million people. There the population is much, much more than the insurgents are.”

Zardari admitted that Pakistan had “a problem” with the Taliban inside its borders and called for an international approach to extremism as a whole, “because it’s not Pakistan-specific”.

“I think we need to find a strategy where the world gets together against this threat, because it’s not Pakistan-specific,” he said. “It’s not Afghanistan-specific. Like I said, it’s all the way from the Horn of Africa. You’ve had attacks in Spain. You’ve had attacks in Britain. You’ve had attacks in America. You’ve had attacks in Africa, Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“So I think the world needs to understand that this is the new challenge of the 21st century, and this is the new war.”

Zardari acknowledged his country will need US help to succeed in the “It’s an accepted position that ... we cannot work this problem out unless Pakistan, Afghanistan and America are on the same page,” he said.

But the president rejected suggestion that some limits on US aid be imposed based on performance by Pakistan. agencies