ISLAMABAD (IRNA) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said that Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden were both in Pakistan, charging that Islamabad's support of militants had made Afghanistan unstable while playing down reports that the Taliban was gaining strength inside his country.

According to the Daily Times, Karzai said that the Taliban leader was for sure in Pakistan, adding that "Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf knows it and I know it."

He is truly there, he added. On the whereabouts of Bin Laden, Karzai said: "If I told you he was in Pakistan, President Musharraf, my friend, would be mad at me. But if I said he was in Afghanistan, that would not be true."

In a veiled reference to Musharraf and his alleged support of militants, Karzai said that some in the region used extremists to maintain their political power.

Some of these regimes are definitely using extremism as an instrument of policy, and that is why Afghanistan has suffered, he said.

He equated cooperating with terrorists to trying to train a snake against somebody else. "You cannot train a snake. It will come and bite you."

Playing down the Taliban-led insurgency that aims to topple his U.S.-backed government, the Afghan president noted that the group was targeting teachers and children as well as clinics and schools.

"Is that strength? No. Is it popular base? No."

He said that his government had been unable to prevent the Taliban from committing acts of terrorism due to inadequate police and military structures, adding that the country had been weakened from years of war.