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Pakistan is revamping its system of Islamic religious schools to curb extremism and its education minister will visit the United States soon to underscore Islamabad's seriousness about reform, Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said on Tuesday.
Some of the schools, known as madrasas, have been accused of breeding the Islamic militancy that has fed violence in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan, adding weight to criticism that Islamabad does too little to fight terrorism.
President Pervez Musharaff, a key US ally in the war on terrorism, has vowed to clean up the madrasas. Kasuri said about 75 percent had registered with the government, making it possible to pursue reforms at those schools.
"We have done a lot. A lot more needs to be done," Kasuri told Reuters in an interview in Washington following talks on Monday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. "There's no tolerance for anybody who is teaching people how to fight," he said. "The government takes very strong action."
Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi, whom Kasuri described as a "tough administrator", is scheduled to visit Washington next week to promote exchanges and explain madrasa curriculum and examination reforms, he said. Kasuri said one obstacle to reform was the fact that "madrasas are a major NGO and the poorest of the poor go there."
The country's cash-strapped education system lacked the resources to fund public schools that could house poor students as an alternative to the mosque-based schools, he said.

Copyright Reuters, 2006

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