Britain will be a leading voice calling for Pakistan's readmission to the Commonwealth following the restoration of democracy in the south Asian state, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said.
Mr Miliband hailed the transition from military rule to civilian government in Pakistan over the past few months as an "inspiration" for other parts of the world.
And he backed the new government's plans to negotiate with militants who renounce violence, arguing that this would allow a separation between moderate Islamists and hardliners who support al Qaida.
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At the end of a two-day visit to Pakistan, Mr Miliband today met new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and President Pervez Musharraf, whose imposition of emergency rule in November led to his country's suspension from the 53-nation Commonwealth.
Mr Miliband told a press conference in Islamabad: "The democratic transition that Pakistan's people have undergone over the last few months, has I think, been ... for many parts of the world an inspiration.
"I want Britain to be a leading voice calling for Pakistan's re-entry" into the Commonwealth.
The establishment of a new Pakistani Government in February brought to an end eight years of military rule following the coup which first brought Mr Musharraf to power.
It followed tense parliamentary elections carried out under the shadow of the assassination of People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto.
Mr Miliband said he felt "genuinely humbled" last night when he met Ms Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party was the bitter rival of the People's Party in the 1990s but is now its coalition partner.
Mr Miliband later told the BBC that talking to militants in Pakistan could help isolate the radicals who seek to export violence to neighbouring Afghanistan and around the world.
He said: "Reconciliation is the tough option, not a soft option. It goes side by side with economic and security measures.
"Serious reconciliation with those who are willing to reconcile is, I think, important.
"It means separating out the ideologues, many of them linked to al Qaida, who want to use Pakistan as a base to bomb democracy out of Pakistan and kill their way around the world - separating them from those who are willing to play by the constitutional rules.
"Reconciliation doesn't mean leaving space for terrorists. It doesn't mean abandoning the role of the military or the police. It doesn't mean abandoning the constitutional rules that are so important for society. What it does mean doing is rallying the maximum number of people behind the flag of decency and democratic governance."
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