Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday laughed off questions about his possible vulnerability to a military coup or mass protests at home while travelling abroad on a week of whirlwind diplomacy. Musharraf, who has detained Muslim fundamentalist leaders and removed suspected pro-Taliban generals from high posts following the September 11 attacks in the United States, said reports about rising opposition to him were baseless. ''The very fact that I'm sitting comfortably here talking to you, leaving my country for seven days, shows that all these perceptions are misplaced,'' he told a Paris news conference in response to a question about his grip on power. ''There is no risk involved,'' he said after meeting French leaders on the third stop of a tour taking him to Iran, Turkey, France, Britain and the United States. Musharraf, who seized power in 1999 and has promised elections next October, said that anti- American protests hit a peak after the US-led bombing campaign against Afghanistan began on October 7 and now hardly rallied more than 1,000 people.
Religious parties have called for a nationwide protest on Friday. ''In a population of 140 million, one or two thousand is absolutely meaningless, I'm not at all disturbed,'' Musharraf said. ''This is only being done by a very small minority of religious extremists.''

Bureau Report