Extremism poses threat to Pakistan, says Musharraf

"We don't face any external threat," General Musharraf told some 1,000 armed forces' top brass, provincial officials and foreign diplomats at the submarine induction ceremony at navy dockyards in Arabian Sea port city Karachi.

Internal terrorism and extremism were instead the country's only threats, he said.

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Musharraf's assertion of no threat from outside forces comes amid a slow process of normalisation between the nuclear powered arch-rivals.

Since facing off on the brink of war for most of last year, Pakistan and India have been mending ties this year, reviving ambassadorial and bus links severed by New Delhi over the December 2001 attack on its parliament.

Talks will be held next week on resuming a cross-border train service and flights will be restored from January 1.

Most significantly, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has agreed to travel to the Pakistani capital in January for the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit.

No dates for formal talks, stalled since July 2001, have been set but observers are watching for possible chats on the sidelines of the Saarc summit.

Musharraf named instead terrorism and extremism as Pakistan's greatest threat.

"This is the only threat," he said. "Sectarian and religious terrorism is eating us like termites and it is Islam and the Muslim ummah (community) which is paying the highest cost. We all have to fight against it.

"The biggest internal challenge we are faced with is terrorism and extremism."