President General Pervez Musharraf called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon to end grave human tragedy there, during his conversation with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, saying the UN Security Council had a critical role in arresting spiralling violence in the Middle East.
"Any loss of time will further deteriorate the situation and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon," the President said while discussing situation in the Middle East with Annan over telephone on Sunday.
The President drew the attention of the UN Secretary General to the escalating crisis that has engulfed the entire region and emphasised the need of immediate ceasefire and vacation of Israeli troops from Lebanon.
Underscoring UN's major role, the President said that the Security Council in particular had a critical role in halting the Israeli aggression and finding a negotiated settlement of the crisis.
The two leaders also discussed the rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the quake-hit Azad Kashmir and the NWFP following the devastating earthquake in October last year.
UN Secretary General Annan appreciated the efforts of the Pakistan government in the immediate aftermath of the decimating quake and the endeavours to rehabilitate the quake-survivors.
He expressed UN's full co-operation to rehabilitation and long-term reconstruction phase and said the world body stood by the Pakistan government in their rehabilitation efforts.
The UN Secretary General said he would also spoke to senior George Bush to expedite efforts for translating financial pledges the donor countries made in November last year to help the reconstruction efforts into reality. President Musharraf and the UN Secretary General also discussed the situation in Afghanistan.