Pakistanis have no key role in London attacks

In a rare interview with the BBC, broadcast late on Monday, Mushar-raf also said he thought that there was a mastermind behind the July 7 suicide attacks on three subway trains and a bus, which left 56 people dead, who may also have planned a failed copycat attack two weeks later.

"Pakistan has not played a pivotal role. There is no such evidence to prove that," said the Pakistani leader, whose country became a focus of a huge international probe into Britain's worst terrorist atrocity.

Musharraf acknowledged, however, that at least two of the four suspected suicide bombers visited Pakistan prior to their attack, and said investigations into their movements were ongoing.

"We have some clues on certain contacts of telephone numbers that they contacted," he told the BBC. "There were two of the bombers who came here and when they came here who they contacted we are trying to find out and then we will be able to establish clearly linkages."

Three of the gang -- Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, and Hasib Hussain, 18 -- were British Muslims of Pakistani origin. The fourth suspect was a 19-year-old Muslim convert born in Jamaica, Germaine Lindsay.

In the interview for "The New al-Qaeda", a series about the terror threat, shown on Britain's BBC2 channel -- extracts of which were broadcast on the BBC's Newsnight -- Musharraf suggested that the carnage of July 7 and the abortive bombings by another gang of four men on July 21 were linked.

"Possibly," he said, when asked if he thought there was a connection.

"Because the pattern is similar, therefore while the people were different and maybe the groups didn't know each other, but the planner must be the same.

Musharraf said he strongly suspected that a network was behind the bombings, while noting that this was his personal belief, rather that a suspicion backed up by intelligence reports.

"Certainly those four boys who killed themselves, committed suicide, were not experts in handling bombs and handling a complex operation like timing it so well so I am sure there must be a brain behind it," he said.

After July 7, Britain pressed Pakistan to move against radical madrasas following news that some of the British suicide-bombers had previously visited Pakistan and that one may have studied at a seminary there.

As a result, Musharraf has ordered more than 800 militant suspects arrested in sweeping raids and told some 1,400 foreign madrasa students to leave Pakistan, sparking widespread anger across the country.

The president, however, rounded on the British government of Prime Minister Tony Blair for failing to take a tougher line against extremist activity here, expressing concern about radical groups preaching hate.