US threatened Pakistan: Musharraf

London, Sep 22 (UNI) Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has claimed that the George W Bush administration threatened to bomb his country ''to the Stone Age'' if it did not help America's war on terrorism post 9/11.

The claim came yesterday, a day before Gen Musharraf is to meet Mr Bush in the White House.

The Pakistan President said the threat was made by Richard Armitage, the then Deputy Secretary of State, in the days after the terror attacks, and was issued to the Pakistani Intelligence Director.

''The Intelligence Director told me that (Armitage) said 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the 'Stone Age','' Gen Musharraf said.

''I think it was a very rude remark.'' The claim come at the end of a week in which relations between the US and Pakistan have hit a new low, and days ahead of the publication of President Musharraf's memoir, 'In the Line of Fire'.

The book will be serialised in The Times.

In an interview to CNN, Mr Bush, on Wednesday, said he would not hesitate to authorise immediate American military action inside Pakistan if he had intelligence on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts. Asked if he would give an order to kill the al-Qaeda leader, Mr Bush said, ''absolutely.'' Reacting angrily to this, President Musharraf said, ''We would not like to allow that. We would like to do that ourselves.'' The President's potentially incendiary claim of the US threats comes amid suspicion in Washington that Pakistan is not doing enough to curb a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, or in the hunt for Laden.

Lately, Islamabad has denied US media reports that it has struck a deal with al-Qaeda and Taliban militants inside Pakistan, and even one report that it has assured Laden that if captured, he would not face prosecution.

Talking about Mr Armitage's threat, Gen Musharraf told the CBS 60 Minutes programme that he reacted in a responsible way. ''One has to think and take action in the interest of the nation, and that's what I did,'' the General said.

According to The Times, documents showed that Mr Armitage, who last night disputed the language but did not deny the claim, had met the Pakistani Ambassador and the visiting head of Pakistan's military intelligence service in Washington on September 13, 2001, and asked Pakistan to take seven steps.

Gen Musharraf told CBS that he was irked by the US demands that Pakistan turn over its border posts and bases for the American military to use. He said some demands were ludicrous, including one insisting that he suppressed domestic expression of support for terrorism against the United States. ''If someone is expressing views, we cannot curb it,'' he said.

President Musharraf also spoke about his embarrassment when informed at the UN in 2003 by George Tenet, the then CIA Director, that Pakistani nuclear weapon technology had been passed to Iran and North Korea by father of Pakistan's nuclear weapon programme A Q Khan.

He told CBS, ''(Tenet) took his briefcase out, passed me some papers. It was a centrifuge design with all its numbers and signatures of Pakistan . It was the most embarrassing moment.'' He said, ''Not only were blueprints being given to Iran and North Korea, but that the centrifuges themselves, the crucial technology needed to enrich uranium to weapons grade, were being passed to them.'' ''Dr Khan gave them centrifuge designs. He gave them centrifuge parts. He gave them centrifuges.'' ''The shipments were not done once. They must have been transported many times.'' UNI XC SI RL HT1505