Opening an anti-terroism summit in Ankara, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called terrorism a global menace, but warned that Muslims should not be viewed as terrorists.
Hamid Karzai was the keynote speaker at a two-day conference hosted by the powerful Turkish military.
The Afghan president called for the audience, which included Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, to cooperate in combating terrorism. Without such cooperation, he said, any battle against terrorists would be ineffective.
Analysts say the Afghan leader's remarks were aimed in particular at Pakistan. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding in the rugged mountains separating Afghanistan from Pakistan. Afghan officials complain that Pakistan is not doing enough to prevent Islamic militants under bin Laden's command from crossing into their country.
Earlier this week, during talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Marine General Peter Pace, urged Pakistani officials to work harder to stop terrorist infiltrations into Afghanistan.
General Pace, who is in the Turkish capital, is expected to address the conference on terrorism. He will also hold talks with Turkish military officials and Prime Minster Erdogan to discuss developments in neighboring Iraq.
Turkey says it wants the United States to take military action against Kurdish separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party based in northern Iraq. The group, which is on the U.S. and EU list of terrorist organizations, has stepped up attacks against Turkish security forces in recent months.
The United States says it cannot open a second front against the Kurdish separatists, while its troops are fighting Iraqi insurgents in central and southern Iraq.
Analysts say continued U.S. inaction against the rebels is contributing to rising anti-American sentiment in Turkey.
