Britain urges Pakistani effort on Afghan border

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26 (Reuters) Britain wants to strengthen cooperation with Pakistan to help it secure its Afghan border and stop Taliban insurgents launching attacks into Afghanistan, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said today.

US Vice President Dick Cheney was also in Pakistan on an unannounced visit, calling for tough measures to combat the Taliban in Afghanistan and a resurgent al Qaeda.

Beckett said she had briefed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on a statement in London due later today in which Britain is expected to announce an increase in its troops in Afghanistan.

''I have also taken the opportunity to recognise the steps Pakistan has taken against the Taliban to secure the border with Afghanistan and explore what further cooperation between us could strengthen those steps,'' Beckett told reporters.

Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster in 2001 and there is concern this year could be as bad or worse amid a Taliban threat of a spring offensive.

There are about 45,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, most in a U.S.-led NATO force.

Britain has about 5,200 troops in the NATO force, most in the violent southern province of Helmand, and Defence Secretary Des Browne is due to announce reinforcements today.

US commanders in Afghanistan say Taliban havens in lawless tribal areas on the Pakistani side of the border must be tackled if the insurgency is to be defeated.

Asked if she thought Pakistan was doing enough, Beckett said: ''It is true of all us that we have not yet been able to do enough in order to stem some of these threats.'' ''Of course, we all would like to see people who are terrorists not able to rest in safe havens,'' she told a news conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri.

''AN AFGHAN PROBLEM'' Pakistan acknowledges that some militants are crossing the porous border into Afghanistan to fight the Western-backed government and the foreign troops supporting it but says it is doing all it can to stop them.

Pakistan says a resurgent Taliban are an Afghan problem and they are feeding off resentment among Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, over indiscriminate bombing, a perceived lack of representation, corruption and poverty.

Kasuri said securing the border was a shared responsibility, adding Afghanistan should do more to stop Taliban crossing into Pakistan to recruit.

''Why should people, terrorists, be allowed from Afghanistan to come into Pakistani tribal areas to recruit? Why are they not killed there?'' he asked.

Pakistan nurtured the Taliban during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s and supported them after they took over most of the country in 1996.

Pakistan officially cut support for the Taliban and joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the September. 11 attacks but many Pakistanis, including conservative religious parties in power in some border areas, sympathise with them.

As the Afghan insurgency has intensified, so have questions about Pakistani efforts to crack down on the militant networks supporting the Taliban, and to choke off cross-border support.

The New York Times said on Monday President George W Bush had decided to send a tough message to Musharraf, warning that the newly elected Democratic U.S. Congress could cut aid unless his forces became more aggressive in hunting down al Qaeda operatives.

The United States has about 27,000 troops in Afghanistan.

REUTERS PB PM1733