Musharraf Says U.S. Threatened To Bomb Pakistan

U.S. President George W. Bush (left) with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad in March 2006 (epa) September 22, 2006 -- President General Pervez Musharraf says the United States threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age" unless it cooperated with the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

In an interview with the U.S. television network CBS due to be broadcast on September 24, Musharraf says the threat came from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was delivered to Musharraf's intelligence director.

Armitage has denied Musharraf's claim and says he did not have the authority to make such a threat. Armitage said his message to Pakistan was that the country was either with the United States or against it in the battle against terrorists.

Musharraf is due to meet later on September at the White House in Washington with President George W. Bush.

(CBS, Reuters, AFP, AP)