New Delhi: Pakistan continues to be a "breeding ground" for extremist groups and those adhering to the al-Qaida ideology, a prominent US journal has said quoting speeches by extremist leaders on the occasion of the country's Independence Day.

"It is a troubling sign that Pakistan remains a breeding ground for extremist groups and for an ideology of cultural war shared by al-Qaida," the Christian Science Monitor said in a recent report.

The journal quoted speeches at a rally organised in Lahore on the occasion of Pakistani Independence Day on August 14 by Jamaat-ud-Dawa "which once called itself Lashkar-e- Toiba".

The speakers at the rally included a prominent leader of the outfit, Amr Hamza, whose speech was quoted in the report.

When Hamza asked the audience whether they were ready to "crush the Hindus and the Americans between your teeth", the crowd shouted back "yes".

The Monitor quoted President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan as claiming that "there is no room for extremism in Pakistan and we are absolutely sincere in getting it eliminated on our territory".

But "while western diplomats publicly say Pakistan has not changed its policy toward extremist groups, many privately worry that two provincial governments (in Balochistan and North West Frontier Province) may be tacitly supporting the resurgent Taliban", he was quoted as saying.

PTI