CIA paid Pak for al-Qaeda suspects: Musharraf

The US Central Intelligence Agency paid Pakistan millions of dollars for handing over more than 350 suspected al-Qaeda terrorists to the United States, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said.

The assertions come in the military ruler's upcoming memoir "In the Line of Fire", a local newspaper reported.

Musharraf does not reveal how much Pakistan was paid for the 369 Al-Qaeda suspects he was ordered to handed over to the United States, the newspaper said, noting, however, that such payments are banned by the US government.

Musharraf's claims come after he said last week that former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage had threatened to bomb Pakistan if it did not back the United States in the so-called "war on terror" in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.