The Hindustan Times writes: "Pakistan has said that it has always asked the US to deal with the Taliban directly as it enjoys no influence with the militia and denied that Islamabad supplied it with funds and weapons, which may have come from the "Soviet leftovers."



Taliban militia in Afghanistan has enough weapons to fight for a decade and Pakistan had urged the US to deal directly with them even before the present crisis (following terror strikes in the US), Pakistan Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said here.



"As far as weapons are concerned this is my strong belief that they (the Taliban) have enough weapons to fight for ten years. The booty from the Soviet leftovers is that strong", Haider, who was on a brief stopover here en route to Pakistan from Kuwait, told the 'Khaleej Times.'



He said Islamabad had no influence on the Taliban contrary to popular perception in the West and in fact the two differed on many international issues.



"We told them not to train any Pakistan national in their camps...even then (during the Buddha statue episode) we tried to knock some sense into the mindset of the Afghan government but we could not succeed," he said.



http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/190901/dlfor 32.asp"