PARIS,  (Reuters) – Pakistani President Asif Ali  Zardari said yesterday the international community was losing  the war against the Afghan Taliban and rebuked British Prime  Minister David Cameron for questioning Islamabad’s resolve.

Shortly before leaving France for Britain for a visit that  could define Pakistan’s troubled relations with the West,  Zardari set the stage for a difficult meeting with Cameron,  saying he hoped a “frank exchange” would clear the air.

During a visit to India last week, Cameron said Pakistan  must do more to prevent “the export of terror,” comments that  infuriated Islamabad, which summoned Britain’s envoy on Monday.

In a statement released overnight, Zardari’s office quoted  him as saying it was “unfortunate that certain individuals  continue to express doubts and fears about our determination to  fight militants to the end”.

“Pakistanis were disappointed by Cameron’s comments,  especially as he said them in India, and for this reason it was  even more important for the president to visit Britain to  address this issue,” the statement said.

“Such fears will only weaken the international effort to  fight militants and extremists.”

Television pictures showed Zardari arriving in Britain yesterday evening for a visit that will include talks with Cameron  on Friday and a rally for supporters of his Pakistan People’s  Party in Birmingham on Saturday.

In an interview with Le Monde, Zardari gave a stark  assessment of the nine-year-old Afghanistan war and said the  West was to blame for failing to win the support of ordinary  Afghans.

“I believe that the international community, which Pakistan  belongs to, is in the process of losing the war against the  Taliban,” Zardari said. “And that is, above all, because we have  lost the battle for hearts and minds.”

The international coalition had “underestimated the  situation on the ground and not recognised the extent of the  problem” after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 to oust the  Islamist Taliban movement and fight its al Qaeda allies.

“The success of the insurgents has been to know how to wait.  They have time on their side,” he told the newspaper. “The whole  approach seems wrong to me. The population does not associate  the presence of the coalition with a better future.”

Despite an increase in the U.S.-dominated foreign force in  Afghanistan to 150,000 troops, the Taliban insurgency is at its  strongest since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001.

Western powers have long suspected some in the Pakistani  security forces of quietly helping Afghan insurgents, suspicions  that gained attention last month after they appeared in a trove  of classified U.S. documents leaked by website WikiLeaks.

Pakistan had a history of supporting the Taliban before  2001, but says it is now fully committed to fighting the  militants on both sides of its frontier with Afghanistan, and  bristles at any suggestion that it is playing a double game.

In the interview with Le Monde, Zardari expressed hope his  meeting with Cameron would help dispel a “serious crisis”.