Pakistan's Musharraf Says No US Troops

[Purveyor]

(01-25) 07:48 PST DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) --

Pakistan's president said Friday U.S. troops cannot do a better job than his forces in routing the Taliban and al-Qaida, and the United States should increase its presence in Afghanistan instead to deal with the growing insurgency there.

Pervez Musharraf reiterated that Pakistan opposes any foreign forces on its soil and said "the man in the street will not allow this — he will come out and agitate."

Musharraf was responding to a question about reports that the U.S. government was considering far more aggressive covert operations in Pakistan, and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' offer Thursday to send a small number of combat troops to Pakistan to help fight the insurgency there if Pakistani authorities ask for help.

"This cannot be done by any U.S. force," Musharraf told several hundred VIPs at a breakfast on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. "Please don't think that the U.S. forces have some kind of a magic wand and they'll come and lead to success."

"This environment is worse than what they're facing in Afghanistan. The mountains are higher, and there is no communications infrastructure," he said.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/25/international/i074805S85.DTL