Pakistan vows to help Kabul crush Taliban

KABUL, Sep 6 (Reuters) Pakistan, criticised by some Afghan leaders over cross-border infiltration by the Taliban, vowed today to help its neighbour fight terrorism as Afghanistan battles its worst violence in five years.

After lengthy talks with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he was committed to crushing the Taliban, their al-Qaeda allies and ''Talibanisation'', a reference to the spread of hardline Islam.

''The best way to fight this common enemy is to join hands, trust each other and form a common strategy,'' he told reporters in Kabul days before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks that prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

The use of Pakistani territory by the Taliban, other militant groups and criminals has soured relations between the two countries. Rebels and criminals can freely cross the rugged mountainous frontier, barely controlled in parts.

Some Afghan leaders have accused Islamabad of failing to do enough to stop infiltration, or even of continuing to support its former protege, the Taliban.

Islamabad says it does all it can and on Tuesday struck a deal with pro-Taliban rebels in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan under which the militants agreed to stop raids in both Pakistan and across the border.

NATO FIRM Musharraf pointed to that deal as proof of his commitment.

Hundreds of Pakistani troops and rebels have been killed in the Waziristan region as the government attempts to push its authority into the semi-autonomous tribal lands on the border.

The United States and other Afghan allies reject accusations that Pakistan continues to formally support the Taliban.

But analysts say moral and other cross-border support from groups with strong ethnic and cultural ties remains.

With the Taliban regrouping, especially in its birthplace of Kandahar province bordering Pakistan, NATO launched its biggest offensive against the guerrillas at the weekend.

NATO says it has killed more than 250 Taliban fighters. At least five Canadian soldiers have died in combat in the campaign, Operation Medusa, and 14 British troops were killed when their plane crashed in the opening stages.

The Taliban says NATO casualty estimates are exaggerated.

A British soldier was killed and six wounded when their patrol strayed into an unmarked minefield in Helmand province, the major drug-growing region west of Kandahar today.

A suicide bomber today attacked a car in eastern Khost province, mistaking it for one belonging to a district chief, and killed a headmaster and a civil servant instead.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance would not be deterred by the Taliban resurgence and would go ahead with its planned takeover from US-led forces in the volatile east.

''The ongoing violence in some areas of the country, as we are experiencing and witnessing today, will not deter NATO from carrying out its mission,'' he said, winding up a visit by a high-level delegation from the alliance.

NATO forces have run into stiffer-than-expected resistance from the Taliban leading up to and following their July 31 takeover of the south from U.S. troops. The alliance is due to take control of the east, near Pakistan, by year-end.

De Hoop Scheffer said the illegal drugs industry, centred mainly in the south and expected to reach record crop levels this year, was also a huge challenge.

The opium trade was also discussed by Karzai and Musharraf.

Pakistan is a key smuggling route for Afghan drugs.

Analysts say drug lords anxious to limit the reach of the army and police are supporting the Taliban and other militants to maintain instability.

NATO has about 16,500, troops in Afghanistan, more than half in the relatively secure centre, north and west. Some nations have been reluctant to send soldiers to the dangerous south.

REUTERS SBA KP2248