Ten Pakistanis held for straying over Afghan border

ISLAMABAD, Dec 20 (Reuters) Afghan security forces have arrested 10 Pakistanis who strayed across the border into Afghanistan while cutting firewood, Pakistani officials said today.

The men's detention follows a sharp deterioration in relations between the neighbours -- major US allies in the war on terrorism -- and came on the day Afghanistan announced it had arrested an officer from Pakistan's main spy agency.

''They inadvertently crossed into Afghanistan. We are trying to get them released and hope they will be freed in a day or two,'' said Raziq Bugti, a spokesmen for the government of Pakistan's Baluchistan province.

The men, including five border security troops, were arrested yesterday in the province's Qilla Saifullah district, he said.

Relations between the neighbours have soured over Afghan accusations that resurgent Taliban insurgents are getting help and operating from sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan.

Pakistan was once the Taliban's main sponsor but officially dropped support for the group after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Islamabad denies it supports the insurgents but acknowledges that some militants are crossing the rugged, porous border, and some former security officers might be helping the Taliban.

Afghan presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi told reporters in Kabul yesterday a Pakistani national working for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency had been arrested in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar the previous day.

A Pakistani government spokeswoman rejected the accusation as ''totally fabricated'', but said Afghanistan should allow consular access if the man was Pakistani.

Afghanistan has been struggling this year with the most intense phase of violence, most of it in areas bordering Pakistan, since the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001.

REUTERS PB ND1306