On his way to the French capital, Mr. Mosharraf made a two-hours stopover in Tehran, where he called for "joint measures" to tackle the ongoing Afghan crisis and reiterated the need for "prudent decisions" to be taken by the Islamic countries over the crisis, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

Both Mr. Mosharraf and the new Iranian Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Aref who, in the absence of President Mohammad Khatami, met the Pakistani strongman, called for closer cooperation between Islamabad and Tehran "in order to reach better understanding and make appropriate decisions" on Afghanistan, which neighbours both countries.

Iran and Pakistan stand at opposite sides in the Afghan conflict, blamed partly on "foreign interferences", pointing to the war-devastated nation’s two main Muslim neighbours.

Before the start of the American bombing of the Taleban in Afghanistan in revenge for the 11 September attacks on the US, blamed on the "Al-Qa’eda" organisation based in Afghanistan and protected by the Taleban, Iran was supporting actively the Northern Alliance against the ruling Muslim Fundamentalists that were firmly backed by Islamabad, but the trend is changing fast since then, with Pakistan siding with the United States while Iran is defending the position of the Taleban, albeit indirectly.

Though Iran was one of the first nations to condemn the 11 September terrorist operations, but under policy guidelines from Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the regime’s leader, it announced its opposition to the American initiatives to combat terrorism and called on Muslim nations to adopt a united stand against the bombing of Afghanistan by the United States and Britain.

Mr. Aref stressed the need for an immediate end to the current war in Afghanistan and the establishment of peace and security in the war-torn country, saying that Iran was prepared to cooperate with the United Nations and neighbouring countries in this respect.

Both men also agreed that the Us-led bombing of Afghanistan should be stopped during the coming month of Ramazan, when Muslims fasts.

Asked by reporters if he did not feared a coup by the army, reported to be angry with his siding with the United States determined to boot out the Taleban, Mr. Mosharraf reminded that the fundamentalists who opposes his policies form but a "tiny minority" and the majority of the country’s 140 million population, including the army are behind him.

"Do you think I would have left my country if I would not be sure about the situation", he said, referring to the probability of a coup by the army in a country used to such events. Nonetheless, he added, he would urge his American counterpart to stop the overt military operations in Afghanistan during the fasting month of Ramazan, starting in ten days from now.

But the US Defence Secretary (Minister) Donald Rumsfeld has ruled out any halt in the military operations during the quasi sacred month, observing that Mr. Ben Laden, the Saudi anti-Western crusader believed to be behind the 11 September attacks, would not stop his war.

Observers said the more American engagement in Afghanistan lasts, the more difficult Mosharraf's position and the dangers of instability in Pakistan, hence, they said, the Pakistani authorities first time warning to the Taleban ambassador, Mollah Za'if, to refrain from anti-American statements in press conferences, a warning that translates their concern over growing anti-American tide in Pakistan, fanned by Islamist parties sympathising with the Afghan Taleban.

"If the war (in Afghanistan) continue during Ramazan, Mosharraf would not be present for the Eyd Fetr , the festivities that marks the end of the month's long fasting, the French centrist daily "Le Figaro" quoted General Mirza Aslan Beig, a close ally o the Pakistan's President, as having said warned.

Hours after his arrival to the French capital, Mr. Mosharraf, who came to power almost two years ago in a military coup following an aborted attempt by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharrif to remove him as the army’s top commander, started his first leg of talks with his French counterpart, President Jacques Chirac, who is back from Washington and New York, where he discussed Afghan situation with President George W. Bush and the United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan.

The talks would continue to night before and after a state banquet in his honour at the Elysee Palace and on Thursday, he would meet the French Socialist Premier Lionel Jospin and some members of his government, before flying to London for more important talks there with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is now in Washington to meet the American President.

After being briefed by Mr. Blair, General Mosharraf is expected to address members of the British Parliament before going to Washington for the much awaited meeting with President Bush, after addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday, invited by Mr. Annan.

Diplomatic sources in Paris and London said both the French President and the British Prime Minister told Mr. Bush that in order to fight the very roots of international terrorism, which, in their view, is in the Middle East, he should take more bold initiatives in solving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis by applying more pressures on Israelto accept the formation of a genuinely independent Palestinian state. 

Mosharraf visits to Paris, London and particularly Washington not only would boost the position of the Pakistani strongman in the international scene, experts said, but also his timely siding with America earned him much needed support from the West while bringing the impoverished nation a huge economic bonanza as well as ending embargos imposed on Pakistan after the explosion of its atomic bomb. ENDS MOSHARRAF VISITS 71101