Pakistani President goes on Iran, Turkey tour

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf left Monday for Iran, the latest in a series of trips to Muslim countries designed to inject new life into peace efforts in the Middle East. Musharraf flew out from a military base in Rawalpindi for talks with Iranian leaders in Teheran, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported. He is expected to travel on to Turkey. "It is part of consultations with like-minded Muslim countries where we want to address all the problems afflicting the Muslim world, address the Palestinian dispute and bring harmony by attacking the issue of extremism and terrorism," APP quoted Musharraf as saying before his departure. He has visited several Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in recent weeks and returned last week from a trip to Indonesia and Malaysia. Pakistan, which has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel, backs the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.