Bush plans joint meeting with Musharraf, Karzai

NEW YORK, Sep 19 (Reuters) President George W Bush, seeking to stave off a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, will host a joint meeting September 27 in Washington with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The White House announced the meeting today as the US general overseeing American operations in Afghanistan expressed fresh concern about Taliban military activity being organized and supported from inside Pakistan.

The meeting comes as the United States seeks to quell the heaviest bout of violence in Afghanistan since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001.

''The meeting will provide the three leaders an opportunity to discuss further cooperation in enhancing the trilateral relationship,'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Bush already had separate meetings planned with both leaders and those meetings will proceed as planned, Musharraf on September 22 and Karzai September 26, a spokesman said.

Pro-Taliban militants and the Pakistani government reached a peace deal on September 5 under which the militants agreed to stop attacks in the country and across the border in Afghanistan in return for a halt in government's operations in the region.

Critics say Pakistan's government has virtually caved in to the militants' demands and the strategy risked creating a safe haven in North Waziristan for Taliban insurgents, who are fighting the government in Afghanistan, and their al Qaeda allies.

Army Gen John Abizaid, who as head of Central Command oversees US military operations in Afghanistan, told reporters in Washington the amount of Taliban military activity organized and supported from the Pakistan side of the border has increased over the past year.

''While we get a lot of great cooperation from the Pakistanis in many different ways, it's clear that we've got to do more against the Taliban on both sides of the border for Afghanistan and Pakistan to be able to move in a better direction,'' Abizaid said.

''I don't think that the Taliban represents a mortal danger to the Karzai government. But certainly, at this stage of the campaign, we had hoped to be at the point where we were doing more development and less fighting,'' Abizaid said.

Abizaid also said he did not expect the United States to send additional troops to Afghanistan -- it already has 21,000 there -- to reinforce a NATO force facing what alliance leaders have conceded is facing surprisingly stiff resistance from Taliban and other fighters in the south.

''It is unlikely that US troops would come externally to fill further NATO gaps,'' Abizaid said.

Abizaid said it was unclear whether the September 5 agreement meant that the Pakistani government would pull back from military efforts against the Taliban in Pakistan.

''On the long run, I think they're on the right track. ... But I'm very, very skeptical about this notion that people that have been harbored in the tribal areas are no longer going to be harbored. I'll believe that when I see it.'' REUTERS DKS BST0203