“The 100,000 troops that we are using to fight terrorists are not going around trying to locate Osama bin Laden and Zawahri, frankly,” Musharraf told a conference at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris on Wednesday.

That Osama bin Laden and his top Deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are still at large “doesn’t mean much,” said Musharraf, who is in France on the second leg of his four-nation European tour. The two most wanted men are believed to be hiding somewhere in the Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

“They (the troops) are operating against terrorists, and in the process, if we get them, we will deal with them, certainly,” Musharraf said in remarks suggesting it was more important to battle the Taliban and that the al-Qaida was less of a threat to his country.

Musharraf stressed that the remnants of the former Taliban regime of neighbouring Afghanistan are the “more serious issue, for the US and Pakistan.

Rejecting suggestions that the violence in the border area Swat a sign of a resurgent Taliban, he said “These are pinpricks that they keep doing and we have to manage all of that.”