Pakistan says not to hand top Qaeda member to US

Abu Faraj Farj al Liby

CANBERRA - Pakistan will not hand over a top al Qaeda member it captured last week to the United States, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said yesterday.

US agents and Pakistani authorities have been jointly interrogating Abu Faraj Farj al Liby, described by US officials as the al Qaeda No. 3, who they hope could help them trace Osama bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.

"At the moment we are questioning him. He was involved in two attempts on President Pervez Musharraf, so we have a very strong vested interest," Kasuri told a joint news conference with Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer.

"He is in the custody of the Pakistan government and until all the issues are cleared there is no question of him being handed over to anyone else ... Anything relevant to American security is being shared with the United States," he said.

Pakistan has arrested and killed hundreds of al Qaeda militants and handed most of the captured to the United States.

Musharraf, who will visit Australia from June 13-16, is regarded as a key US ally and a bulwark against Islamist militancy in Pakistan and his efforts to make peace with India has made him even more unpopular among some extremists.

"Pakistan has not shirked from its duties ... our commitment to the war on terrorism and non-proliferation (of nuclear weapons) is total," Kasuri told Reuters.

- REUTERS