Visiting Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday said that they had agreed to fight terrorism and deny sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists in each other's country.

Musharraf and Karzai, often trading blame for not doing enough to stop a resurgent Taliban, made the point in the "Ankara Statement" issued after a meeting at Turkey's presidential palace, which was also attended by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"The two presidents agreed to deny sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists and elements involved in subversive and anti-state activities in each other's country and to initiate immediate action on specific intelligence exchanges in this regard, " the leaders said in the statement.

The statement underscored that Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to foster their bilateral relations on the basis of good neighborly relations, respect to territorial integrity and avoiding intervention in each other's domestic affairs.

Following the meeting, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer indicated that the statement was an important step to boost the tangible cooperation among the three countries.

The presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan visit Ankara on April 29-30 for talks under Turkey's auspices aiming to cool tensions between the two countries in the war against terror at the invitation of Turkish President Sezer.

Afghan officials accuse Islamabad of failing to prevent Taliban- led militants from attacking Afghanistan from their bases in Pakistan's tribal areas along their common border.

Pakistan denies the charges and says it has deployed 80,000 troops in the tribal areas on the border to hunt foreign militants and curb cross-border movements of fighters.

Source: Xinhua