By David Anthony Denny
Washington File staff writer

United Nations --- The need to help Iraq and to fight the war on terrorism were repeated themes for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at the United Nations September 24.

He talked about them in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, in his meeting with President Bush, and in a U.N. press conference later in the day.

In his General Assembly speech, Musharraf said Pakistan, after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, "took a strategic decision ... to support the war on terrorism." He said Pakistan's counterterrorism "capabilities were limited but have been progressively improved."

"We are acting against al-Qaeda and its associates effectively. We have also acted against other organizations or groups involved in any form of terrorism. Pakistan will remain in the forefront of the war on terrorism," he said. The war against terrorism, he added, "must be fought comprehensively, on a global front, with vision and understanding."

In his meeting with Bush, Musharraf discussed the problem of Afghan Taliban fighters crossing over into Pakistan. After the meeting, a senior U.S. official said "the president did ask President Musharraf to go back and to redouble his efforts to try and deal with this particular problem. But this is a very hard problem and I don't think we believe it's from a lack of will."

In his press conference later, Musharraf responded in some detail about the problem with the Pakistani side of its border with Afghanistan. He said some Afghan fighters have crossed over and are hiding in small groups. He described the terrain as "mountainous and inhospitable", and noted that the Pakistani army has entered the border area -- known as the tribal areas -- for the first time ever.

He said the army is making good contacts in the border region and that although Pakistan has a large and efficient army, what's needed in the tribal area is an intelligence operation because they're dealing with small groups of fighters rather than large military forces.

"It involves setting up an intelligence network in all of its complexity," including human and electronic sources of information, Musharraf said. As Pakistan develops a quick reaction force to act on the intelligence it receives, it's anti-terror operations "will become much more effective over time," he said.

Concerning Iraq, Musharraf told the General Assembly that "a consensus must be quickly evolved at the United Nations on ways to restore Iraq's stability, security and sovereignty. Iraq cannot be allowed to remain an open wound," he said. He linked Iraq to the war on terrorism, saying a restored Iraq "could inject a new dimension to the campaign."

Iraq must use an inclusive political process to determine the steps needed to reach a fully representative government, Musharraf said. The Iraqi people, he said. "should assume control of their resources and political destiny and as soon as possible. They must receive the full support of the international community ... in building security and reconstructing their country."

Pakistan, Musharraf said, "would be prepared to help in a collective U.N.-sanctioned Arab and Islamic effort to help the Iraqi people, if they wish us to do so."

The senior U.S. official briefing on the Bush-Musharraf meeting said Bush told Musharraf the United States would "be glad to have [Pakistani] contributions of any kind." Musharraf replied that Pakistan "needs probably a U.N. resolution; it may need some other Arab, or some other Muslim, countries to be involved," the official said.