Afghan-Pakistani border pact seen key to trust

KABUL, Oct 4 (Reuters) Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to call tribal gatherings on both sides of their disputed border in a bid to win support against a resurgent Taliban.

The traditional councils, or jirgas, of bearded, turbaned chiefs would be symbolically important, especially if the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan attend.

But hopes are not high in Afghanistan that they will stem Taliban infiltration from Pakistan.

Some analysts argue that to win Pakistani help to stop the militants, Afghanistan must tackle a problem that has bedeviled relations since Pakistan's creation in 1947 -- their border.

''If the purpose of the jirgas is to convince the tribal people not to let people come from the other side, they will not work,'' said Kabul University professor Wadir Safi.

''The tribal people like the Taliban and al Qaeda, they give them food, everything.'' Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf have been at odds over Afghanistan's deteriorating security.

Americans saw first-hand how bad relations were between their two allies in the war on terrorism when the two leaders traded barbs before meeting President George W. Bush last month.

Karzai says the Taliban are run from Pakistan. Musharraf says the problem lies in Afghanistan which risks a ''people's war'' among its Pashtun tribes.

The Pashtun border lands have for decades been a haven for Islamist militants. Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the mountains and deserts of the tribal belt.

The fiercely independent tribes welcomed foreign militants who came to fight Soviet invaders in Afghanistan in the 1980s. While many of those militants remained, the Taliban were largely drawn from Pashtun refugee camps along the border in the 1990s.

Former Afghan government minister Hamidullah Tarzi also said it would be hard to convince jirgas to break the bond between tribals and militants, many of whom come from the same tribes.

''It will be very difficult to get people who have big sympathies with each other, to then convince them to confront each other,'' Tarzi said.

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