Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari said the international community was losing the war against the Afghan Taliban and rebuked Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron for questioning Islamabad's resolve.
Zardari set the stage for a difficult meeting with Cameron, before leaving France for Britain for a visit that could define Pakistan's troubled relations with the West. He said that he hoped a "frank exchange" would clear the air.
During a visit to India last week, Cameron had asked Pakistan to do more to prevent "the export of terror,". The comments didn't go down well with the politicians at Islamabad, and the Britain's envoy was summoned.
In a statement released by Zardari's office , it was quoted that it was "unfortunate that certain individuals continue to express doubts and fears about our determination to fight militants to the end."
The statement also said, "Pakistanis were disappointed by Cameron's comments especially as he said them in India and for this reason it was even more important for the president to visit Britain to address this issue."
"Such fears will only weaken the international effort to fight militants and extremists."
In an interview with Le Monde, Zardari also went onto say that West was to blame for failing to win the support of ordinary Afghans.
"I believe that the international community, which Pakistan belongs to, is in the process of losing the war against the Taliban," Zardari said. "And that is, above all, because we have lost the battle for hearts and minds."
The International coalition had "underestimated the situation on the ground and not recognized the extent of the problem" following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 to oust the Islamist Taliban movement and fight its al Qaeda allies.
"The success of the insurgents has been to know how to wait. They have time on their side," he told the newspaper. "The whole approach seems wrong to me. The population does not associate the presence of the coalition with a better future."
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