Islamabad, March 7, SPA -- President General Pervez Musharraf says it is in Pakistan's national interest to fight terrorism and extremism and that by doing so his government isn't doing the US or the international community any favour for which it should be rewarded. During a chat with editors, the president shrugged off allegations of "collateral damage" in the war against terror, arguing that it was minimal given the nature of the conflict in Waziristan, Pakistan's tribal region.Musharraf rebutted a suggestion that the focus on the war against terror by his regime was misplaced. "How can we not focus on terrorism or not talk about it when the ground reality is that there are terrorists in Pakistan who are giving the country a bad name", he asked, clearly suggesting that the terrorists were hurting Pakistan rather than the war against terrorism. In a wide-ranging discussion, the president dilated upon the utility of the recent Bush visit, why he told CNN that the charges made by the Kabul government against Islamabad were nonsensical, and why Pakistanis shouldn't view developments from an "Indocentric" mode of analysis in every situation. Musharraf laid to rest fears that he would cave in under pressure from the US or the international community to hand over nuclear scientist Dr A Q Khan or anyone else from the nuclear establishment to the US. "One scientist (Dr Faruqi) and one businessman (Jafri) are also under investigation but they too won't be handed over to any foreign power", he said. The president said that Pakistan was hoping to get a 600 MW nuclear reactor from China and a 1000 MW nuclear reactor from the US and could buy state of the art weapons and aircraft at any time. Musharraf said that it was shopping around for AWACS and that Swedish AWACs weren't the only option in the market. "The Chinese systems are being incorporated into the Chinese air force. So we'll get the best system at the lowest and most competitive price, he elaborated." Musharraf said the discussion about weapons systems and deterrence was framed in the light of India's defense budgets and the recent US nuclear deal with India. But he was careful to insist that Pakistan would not enter into an arms race in the region. The president admitted that the Indo-Pakistan peace process had stalled and that he expected the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan and help kick start it again.--more 13 31 Local Time 10 31 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/337306