Wednesday, August 3 2005 13:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan remain key breeding grounds for radical Islam that fuel terrorism, a US forum tracking the pace of reforms after the September 11, 2001 attacks was told.

Despite constant public condemnations, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have refused to take the fundamental step of illegitimating radical Islamic groups, experts told the hearing yesterday (Aug 3, 2005).

"In these countries there still is a climate that certainly makes it possible and doesn't make it illegitimate to embrace this ideology," said Dennis Ross, the US point man on the Arab-Israeli peace process in both the George Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

"There's been criticism, there's been condemnation, but hasn't been the kind of systematic effort that would make it illegitimate, that these views are simply illegitimate, they're wrong, they're not tolerable," he said.

An independent commission that investigated the circumstances under which the 2001 attacks occurred and left nearly 3,000 people dead among experts who assessed the progress of reforms recommended Ross.

President Pervez Musharraf tackles terrorism in an 'episodic' and not 'systematic' fashion, said Ross told a forum organized by former commission members to boost domestic security.

Musharraf, who grabbed power in a coup in October 1999, acted against militants only under pressure from outside because he feared he might lose support among influential Islamic groups, the experts said.