Pakistan increases security at Kabul embassy

ISLAMABAD, Mar 14 (Reuters) Pakistan today said it had beefed up security at its embassy in Afghanistan, due to the increasingly strained relations between the two US allies in a global war on terrorism.

After surviving an assassination attempt by a suicide car bomber on Sunday, former Afghan President Sibghatullah Mojadidi accused Pakistan's inter-Services intelligence of being behind the attack.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said there were fears Mojadidi's remarks could provoke anti-Pakistan demonstrations in Kabul.

''We have tightened security because of a possibility of such demonstrations,'' she said.

Pakistan has denied the accusations by Mojadidi, who now heads a national reconciliation programme primarily aimed at convincing former Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.

Afghan officials complain that the Taliban use Pakistan's tribal regions as a springboard for attacks inside Afghanistan.

Pakistan, having placed 80,000 soldiers on the frontier, says it is doing all it can and urges Afghanistan to do more on its side of the long, porous border.

The row broke surface late last month after President Hamid Karzai visited Islamabad and handed over information showing, according to Afghan officials, that Mullah Mohammad Omar and other Taliban leaders were running the insurgency from Pakistan.

Pakistan said the information was old and unusable. Earlier this month, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Karzai was ''totally oblivious'' to efforts by elements in his government to malign Pakistan.

US President George W Bush visited Afghanistan and Pakistan earlier this month, raising Pakistani sensitivities about Afghan officials complaining to US counterparts.

The Taliban took power in Kabul in the mid-1990s with Pakistan's backing.

The United States forced Pakistan to abandon support for the Taliban after its leaders refused to surrender al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Despite Islamabad's protests, many Afghan officials suspect Pakistan harbours long term ambitions to have a pro-Pakistan Government in Kabul.

Last year was the bloodiest in an insurgency raging since the Taliban was ousted from Afghanistan by US-led forces, and the militants have conducted suicide attacks with increasing regularity.

REUTERS PG RN