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Islamabad: Pakistan is fighting Al Qaida and the Taliban for its own interests, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Saturday as he headed to his first official US visit.
Gilani's statement comes a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Australia that Pakistan had to do more to curb the flow of militants fuelling Afghan insurgency.
"Extremism and terrorism are our own problems. This is our own fight. This is our own cause," said Gilani, who is due to meet US President George W. Bush.
"My priority number one is to maintain law and order in the country...and that's why it is in our own interest that extremism and terrorism is contained," he said.
The United States has long been frustrated at what it views as inadequate efforts by its major ally in the war on terror to do enough to combat militants along the border with Afghanistan.
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