US President George W. Bush and his Pakistan counterpart Pervez Musharraf discussed bilateral relations and the war on terrorism by telephone on Thursday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"The president spoke with President Musharraf earlier today. They talked about US-Pakistan relations, they discussed the global war on terrorism, and they talked about regional issues," McClellan said.

The discussions came after security services in Pakistan arrested a suspect identified as Hashim Qadeer in the murder case of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Pearl was abducted while working on a story on Pakistani militant groups three years ago.

Pakistan has been a strong ally of the United States on the war against terrorism.

Source: Xinhua