WASHINGTON D.C., Sept 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - President Pervez Musharraf left Pakistan early Saturday for a week-long visit to the United States where he will address the United Nations General Assembly, meet Secretary General Kofi Annan and hold talks with President George W. Bush.

The trip is General Musharraf's third to the U.S. since becoming one of its most strategic allies in the war on terrorism in the wake of last year's catastrophic attacks that saw 3,000 dead in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

His reversal of Islamabad's backing of Afghanistan's Taliban regime and logistical and intelligence support of the U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban and Al-Qae’da have won him international praise and burnished his image as a statesman rather than just a military dictator.

Musharraf flew out of the eastern city of Lahore at 1:45 am Saturday (1945 Friday) on a commercial Pakistani flight for Boston, where he will spend the weekend.

On Sunday he is due to give a speech at Harvard University before heading to Chicago on Monday, where he is scheduled to meet the board of the Chicago Tribune newspaper and address the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday.

He will attend the September 11 first anniversary commemoration ceremony at Battery Park in New York Wednesday.

On Thursday he will deliver a keynote address to the opening session of the UN General Assembly, ahead of a meeting with Annan and separate talks with Bush.

Speaking at a weekly press briefing last week, foreign office Aziz Ahmed Khan said Musharraf ‘s speech to the U.M. would focus on tensions with neighboring India and the disputed region of Kashmir.

"Pakistan has always addressed the issue of Kashmir in the General Assembly. Obviously this is an important issue and will be addressed [again]," he said.

"The situation on India-Pakistan border, the situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir, the resolution of Kashmir dispute is an important subject which has attracted the attention of the entire international community.

"Obviously such an important issue [will be] a topic of discussion at any important meeting."

But Khan said it remained uncertain whether Musharraf would meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who is expected to attend a memorial service in New York for the victims of last year's September 11 terror attacks.

"So far we have not received any request from Prime Minister Vajpayee about a meeting. We would have a look at it when we receive that request," he said.

Khan later told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Musharraf's meeting with Bush would cover "a range of bilateral, regional and global issues", including any U.S. action against Iraq.

The Pakistani leader recently warned that any U.S. attack on Iraq would have "really negative repercussions" on the Islamic world.

"I think it [an attack on Iraq] will alienate the Islamic world more," Musharraf said in a BBC interview late last month. "It's already dangerous that all political disputes at the moment all around the world are, unfortunately, involving Muslims, and Muslims are feeling that they are on the receiving end everywhere," he said.

Within Pakistan, "feelings against the United States will increase certainly," the president said.

Khan also told reporters that talks might include the fate of the majority of 58 Pakistani nationals suspected of belonging to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network being held at a U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Khan said a six-member team of Pakistani investigators had visited Guantanamo Bay last month to interview the prisoners to determine their status.

“After interviewing them, our impression is that the majority of those prisoners are not connected with Al-Qaeda," he said.

"We have informed the American authorities and we are discussing their release and repatriation."

Accompanying Musharraf are his wife Begum Sehba Musharraf, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, Information and Kashmir Affairs Minister Nisar Memon, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq, and military spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi.

Musharraf was present at last year's UN General Assembly in November and traveled to Washington to meet Bush in February.