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Sunday, August 1, 2010

Pakistan president to visit Britain amid terror row

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will visit Britain this week for talks overshadowed by a row over remarks by Prime Minister David Cameron suggesting Islamabad was not doing enough to fight terrorism. Pakistan's spy chief, who had been due to visit London on Monday for talks on counter-terrorism, cancelled his trip in protest at Cameron's remarks, a spokesman for the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency said on Saturday. Cameron, speaking in Pakistan's rival India on Wednesday, told Islamabad that it must not become a base for militants and "promote the export of terror" across the globe, raising the ire of several officials and many people in the key U.S. ally. Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Zardari should cancel his visit to Britain. "I think it's inappropriate and an insult to the sentiments of the Pakistani people," he told reporters during a visit to flood-hit areas in the northwest. Images of protesters in Karachi burning an effigy of Cameron have received widespread television coverage in Britain and dominated the front page of at least one newspaper. Pakistan's envoy to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, said he had personally dissuaded Britons of Pakistani descent from demonstrating against Cameron's remarks before Zardari's visit. The Pakistani leader travels to London from Paris, where he flew to on Sunday for talks with President Nicholas Sarkozy on security and economic issues as part of a three-day visit.

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