April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said he will try to ease tensions with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai over fighting terrorists on their common border when they meet in Turkey this week.

Musharraf said he hoped that ``the ground realities will be understood and we will reach a conclusion to reduce the tensions'' between the two countries, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported yesterday, as he left Islamabad for a weeklong visit to Europe.

Karzai has accused Pakistan of failing to control Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters crossing the 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) border and allowing gunmen to train on Pakistani territory. Pakistan rejects the charges and points to the 80,000 soldiers it has deployed in the border region and 1,000 military posts it has established on the frontier.

Pakistan last week expressed its concern at exchanges of gunfire between its soldiers and Afghan troops on the border during a dispute over a fence the Pakistani military is building. Karzai's government opposes the barrier saying it will divide tribes in the region.

Mediation Offer

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to mediate between the Pakistani and Afghan leaders, Musharraf said, according to APP. The meeting will take place April 29-30 after Musharraf visits Poland, Spain and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Afghan officials should stop making baseless and unfounded accusations against Pakistan, APP cited Musharraf as saying.

Musharraf said he will raise with Karzai the issue of trust between the Pakistan-Afghanistan-U.S. coalition, APP added.

Tribesmen in North and South Waziristan in Pakistan's border region have joined the fight against terrorism after signing accords with the government to expel non-Pakistani members of al- Qaeda and other groups sheltering in the region, Musharraf said 10 days ago. About 300 gunmen from other countries have been killed by tribesmen in recent weeks, Musharraf said at the time.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, an organization that tries to resolve conflicts, said last year the tribal accords boosted the activities of al-Qaeda and supporters of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime because they curbed the operations by the army. Pakistan rejected the report.

Shooting Incident

Afghan troops last week ``fired at our border check post without any reason,'' General Waheed Arshad said April 20 in a telephone interview from Islamabad. Pakistani government officials spoke with their Afghan counterparts about the incident, in which nobody was injured, he said.

Arshad denied a statement by the Afghan Defense Ministry reported by Agence France-Presse that Afghan troops tore down the fence at the border.

Musharraf joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism in 2001 when he ended Pakistan's support for the Taliban regime that sheltered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The U.S.-led offensive ousted the Taliban from power in 2001.

Pakistan has arrested about 700 terrorist suspects since then, including alleged al-Qaeda commanders Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Mohamed Abdullah Binalshibh, both accused of helping plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S.

Musharraf has said that, while controls on the Afghan- Pakistani border need to be improved, Afghan and international forces must support the effort from inside Afghan territory.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 22, 2007 21:20 EDT