BEIJING (AFP) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Monday he would welcome a Central Asian grouping that includes China and Russia working alongside NATO to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan.

"In a joint cooperative effort, if the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) can do something, yes indeed it should come forward and cooperate toward the security of Afghanistan ... I'm for it," Musharraf told students following a speech at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

But "if the SCO can come along, then we would need to ensure that there is no confrontation with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)," he added.

The SCO, which also includes the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, would need to be committed to Afghanistan's stability for such a joint effort to work, Musharraf said.

Musharraf arrived in China on Friday for a regional economic forum in southern China and has held talks with President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are SCO observer nations, along with other regional countries like Mongolia, Iran and India.

NATO-led forces dominated by the United States ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan more than six years ago, but the hardline Islamic militia has stepped up insurgency efforts over the past year.

About 70,000 foreign soldiers, most of them under NATO command, are in Afghanistan battling the Taliban.

During his speech, Musharraf also proposed building an oil pipeline from Iran to China that would pass through Pakistan.

"I believe in a corridor linking Pakistan and China, more road linkage, a rail link, fibre optics and oil and gas," Musharraf said.

"We are vying for a pipeline in Pakistan between Iran, Pakistan and India. We are calling it the I-P-I pipeline. So why can't this be the I-P-C pipeline between Iran, Pakistan and China?" he asked.

Musharraf said he raised the pipeline issue in his talks with China's leaders while also vowing to step up Pakistan-China bilateral trade volume to 15 billion dollars by 2011.

Pakistan is one of China's oldest allies in Asia, as Beijing has traditionally used the country as a counterbalance against India, the dominant power in the southern part of the continent.

Pakistan's Musharraf criticizes efforts to politicize Olympics

The Associated Press

Published: April 14, 2008

BEIJING: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf criticized attempts to politicize the Olympics and said Monday that efforts have been taken to ensure the torch relay through Islamabad this week will be successful.

"We think that politics must be kept out of sports," Musharraf said in a speech to students at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing. "Sports generates brotherhood. Sports generates closeness. If we bring politics into it, then the whole idea of sports is killed."

China is one of Pakistan's closest allies and a major source of investment, trade and armaments.

Pakistan has lent support to Beijing's fight against groups involved in a simmering, low-intensity battle for independence in China's traditionally Muslim western region of Xinjiang. Some of those militants are believed to train in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

Musharraf also pledged that the torch relay's one-day stop in Islamabad would be uneventful, unlike its chaotic stops in Europe and the United States, where protesters mounted rowdy demonstrations against China's human rights record and its crackdown in Tibet following major anti-government rallies last month.

"We have taken all measures to ensure its security," Musharraf said. "There is not one man in Pakistan who would do anything against the interests of China."

But he did warn against outsiders trying to disrupt the relay.

"We have to take care that there is no infiltration by some elements who are bent on disrupting our understanding and great relationship," Musharraf said. He did not give details.

"Any attempt by anyone to disrupt the process of the torch relay and create ill will is condemned by Pakistan," he said.

In an interview with the English-Language China Daily, Musharraf blasted Western leaders and media for "politicizing" the Olympics.

"You cannot superimpose the human rights and democracy environment of a Western country onto other countries," he was quoted as saying in Monday's edition. "That is the error that the West makes and Western media makes. This does not work at all and this must stop."

He said in every country, human rights and democracy must be tailored according to its own dynamics.

Musharraf flew to Beijing on Sunday from Hainan province, where he participated in the annual Boao economic forum. He will make a final stop in Urumqi, the capital of restive Xinjiang province, before heading back home.

Pakistan's Musharraf pushes for China oil pipeline

April 14,... Mon, Apr 14 01:16 PM

BEIJING (Reuters) - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is pushing for the construction of gas and oil pipelines between his country and China to bolster bilateral ties, he said on Monday, during a visit that has highlighted security concerns.

"Pakistan is very much in favour of a pipeline between the Gulf and China through Pakistan, and I have been speaking about this with your leadership," Musharraf told a gathering of students and academics in Beijing.

Beijing has stood close to Musharraf, who came to power as a general in a coup in 1999, even as he has become increasingly vulnerable since the assasination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the defeat of Musharraf's allies in Feb. 18 polls.

The two countries have explored proposals to use Pakistan as a pipeline corridor, bringing oil and gas from the Middle East to China.

Musharraf told students and academics in Beijing that he had raised the idea, which has been mooted for several years, during talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

He said a proposed gas pipeline between Iran and India through Pakistan could be expanded to include China.

Pakistan's proposals to become a main energy link for China have not moved much beyond vague talks, but Musharraf said they were "very much possible," even with the high-altitude border between the two nations.

"I'm very sure in the future that -- as Muslims say, 'Inshala' -- it will happen."

China relies on imported oil for nearly half its needs and is keen to diversify supply routes away from the traffic-choked and easily blockaded Malacca strait.

But Chinese industry sources have said in the past that security concerns in Pakistan make it very unlikely that the pipeline plans would take off.

Musharraf's six-day visit to China ending April 15 is his first trip abroad since a new government packed with opponents was sworn in late last month.

China is a big arms partner of its neighbour Pakistan, with each side long using the other as a counter-weight to India's influence.

But Beijing also worries about security threats emanating from Pakistan -- fears that have been underscored during Musharraf's visit.

The Pakistani leader met China's President Hu Jintao on Friday on the southern Chinese island of Hainan. Hu praised their ties as "good friends, good partners and good brothers."

But especially ahead of the Beijing Olympics, China is worried about security threats from Uighur militants in its northwest region of Xinjiang, who want an independent "East Turkestan" homeland for their largely Islamic people.

Musharraf will wind up his visit in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang.

China is concerned Uighur militants have forged links with Islamist fighters based in Pakistan, and sources earlier told Reuters that a foiled attack on a Chinese domestic flight in March involved people carrying Pakistan passports.

Hu told Musharraf that their two countries should strengthen cooperation in fighting terrorism and drugs trafficking and "enhancing security for the Olympic Games."