President General Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that Pakistan is fighting against terrorism in a strategic way both in long and short terms.
In an interview with Turkish daily 'Hurriyet' published on Friday, he said the long term strategic perspective covered political consensus, education and fight against poverty.
"In the short term you have to apply military force and eliminate the brains behind terrorism," Musharraf added.
The President categorised the terrorists into three groups: persons who carried out the attacks, the one that planned the attacks and the brains behind terrorism.
"If we do not target the brains behind terror, we will not be able to exterminate terrorism," he said.
"If you get rid of the persons who carry out the attacks, you will be only cutting leaves of a tree. If you get rid of the persons who plans the attacks, then you are only cutting the branches of a tree."
Asked if Pakistan planned to send troops to Iraq within the framework of the United Nations, the President said: "We have not yet made any decision regarding sending troops to Iraq. The people of Iraq should decide whether they want troops or not. Furthermore, we also have to take into consideration the will of our own people."
On Pakistan-Turkey economic relations, Musharraf said both the countries were determined to increase the trade volume to $ 1 billion by 2005.
The President said it was unfortunate that Muslim countries were least developed in the world and extremely backward in education and other fields and called for changing the existing situation.
Musharraf said his idea of 'Enlightened Moderation' is a two pronged strategy, which is a win-win for the Muslim world and the West.
About consensus among Islamic countries on certain issues like women rights, he said it is important to have unanimity of thoughts regarding socio-economic development.