Wednesday, September 13 2006 11:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Brussels: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf warned today that Afghanistan's Taliban militia has overtaken Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network as his region's biggest threat to security.

He said the radical Islamist group, which was ousted from Government in Afghanistan in late 2001 for harbouring bin Laden, is more dangerous because it has roots as a social movement and is not simply an ideology.

"The centre of gravity of terrorism has shifted from Al-Qaeda to Taliban," he told European parliamentarians in Brussels.

"It is a new element that has emerged, a more dangerous element because it has roots in the people. Al-Qaeda did not have roots in the people," he told the EU assembly's foreign affairs committee.

The Taliban has been waging a tenacious insurgency against NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan, particularly in the region around the city of Kandahar, with fighters slipping over the border from neighbouring Pakistan.

Musharraf said that the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was leading the insurgency and said that he was certainly hiding in Afghanistan and not Pakistan, although he acknowledged bin Laden might be in his country.

"Mullah Omar has never visited Pakistan since 1995 why would he be in Pakistan? He is certainly in southern Afghanistan," the President said.

"The battle, if it is to be won, has to address the centre of gravity of the force, and the centre of gravity lies in Mullah Omar and his command echelon," he said.

Musharraf said that a deal reached last week between pro-Taliban militants and tribal leaders on the Pakistani side of the mountainous border was an important step in cutting off recruits to the Taliban.

The president said that the deal included simultaneous military, political, administrative and reconstruction efforts, instead of the simple use of force alone.

"Military only buys time and provides an opening for a political solution. Military will never give you the ultimate solution. The military is never the ultimate answer," he said.

"I personally feel it is the time for brains rather than brawn," he added.

Pakistan has deployed some 80,000 troops along the border with Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban militants and Al-Qaeda fugitives.

Musharraf said that the remnants of Al-Qaeda are now on the run and we are still attacking them.