Islamabad: Rejecting that he was a "traitor" as contained in a tape purportedly from al-Qaida terror network, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on September 11 said he was doing his best to fight terrorism.

Appearing on an interactive programme of the BBC website, Musharraf said his government was cracking down on Islamic religious schools, which are seen as a breeding ground for Islamic militancy.

Some madrassas (religious schools) and mosques were being "misused" to spread religious and sectarian hatred, he said. "I am sure we will meet success."

He said that Pakistani authorities have done their best to capture al-Qaida chief Osama bin laden and his associates, who he thought was somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

He was responding to a tape purportedly from al-Qaida shown on al-Jazeera television, in which a man purportedly to be the network's number two, Ayman al-Zawari, described Musharraf as a "traitor" and asked Pakistanis to rise up against him.

"Until when will you put up with the traitor Musharraf, who sold the Muslims' blood in Afghanistan and handed over the Arab mujahideen to crusader America?

"Had it not been for his treason, the surrogate government would not have been installed in Kabul, that government which brought the Indians to Pakistan's western borders," the speaker said on the eve of the second anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on US.

Musharraf said Islam had to decide between militancy and emancipation wanted Muslims to adopt the path of "enlightened" moderation.

He said both the Muslim world and the West needed to work to bridge the differences, which had led to the 2001 attacks.

For its part, the West needed to help resolve disputes involving Muslims so that justice was seen to be done, he said.

The West should also help promote education and poverty alleviation programmes in the Muslim world, in order to address issues at the root of the divide between the two communities.

Recalling that there have been numerous attacks on religious and foreign targets in Pakistan in the last two years, Musharraf said no security agency in the world could guarantee hundred per cent protection for its population.

Detailing the effort to contain terrorism, the Pakistani President noted that the militant organisations have been banned and their offices sealed.

PTI