Not since September 12 2001 has Pervez Musharraf found himself under such pressure. The morning after the attacks on the US, Colin Powell, then secretary of state, insisted that Pakistan's president leave a meeting to take his call, saying: "You are either with us or against us."

Later that day, Richard Armitage, Gen Powell's deputy, warned that Pakistan had to abandonthe Taliban or prepare to be bombed "back to the Stone Age", Gen Musharraf recalls in adisputed passage of his recent autobiography.