ISLAMABAD, 23 April 2007 — Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai will meet in Turkey next week to discuss a row over rival claims that militants frequently cross their common border.

President Musharraf said yesterday the meeting with President Karzai will be held in Turkey and that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend the talks. He said that during his meeting with Karzai he would try to remove misunderstandings and also raise the issue of wanted persons.

“The effort will be that the talks are held in a good atmosphere and ground realities should be understood,” Musharraf told reporters before leaving on a four-nation European tour that will take him to Poland, Spain, Bosnia and Turkey.

“The accusations that have been coming from there (Afghanistan), that have been coming from President Karzai, they should be stopped,” Musharraf said.

“I have said many times that there is no reality in what they say. We will talk about this,” Musharraf said adding, “I hope there will be some improvement.”

Musharraf did not specify the date of his meeting with Karzai, but Pakistani and Afghan officials have said that the two leaders are expected to meet at the end of April.

Musharraf said that the upcoming meeting with Karzai has been brokered by Erdogan, who is “trying to mediate” between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the row over cross-border militant movements.

The Musharraf-Karzai meeting is expected to be held in the Turkish city of Ankara. Turkey has close ties with both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Before heading to Turkey, Musharraf will meet the leaders of Spain, Poland and Bosnia for talks on trade links, defense cooperation and terrorism, the Foreign Ministry said.

“International and regional issues of mutual interest, including Pakistan-India relations, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East and the fight against international terrorism will be discussed,” it said.

Bilateral agreements on defense, air services, economic cooperation, culture, education, science and technology, banking and development of small and medium-sized enterprises will be signed, the ministry statement said.

In Warsaw, Musharraf will meet President Lech Kaczynski, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and business leaders.