Afghan, Pakistan continue trading fire on border

KABUL, May 14 (Reuters) Afghan and Pakistani forces traded fire in a southeastern border region for a second day today in the worst clash in decades between the two uneasy neighbours, Afghan officials said.

There were no further details about the clash, which according to Afghan officials erupted after Pakistani forces took some areas in a border region in the southeastern province of Paktia yesterday.

Pakistan said yesterday that Afghan troops started ''unprovoked firing'' on five or six border posts in the Kurram tribal region in northwest Pakistan. Pakistani paramilitary forces retaliated and killed up to seven Afghan troops, according to Pakistani officials.

Afghanistan said its forces suffered minor injuries but two school children were killed, which prompted thousands of civilians to join government forces in fighting Pakistani troops in reaction to the ''infiltration''.

Afghan officials said the clash was a provocative act by the Pakistani government aimed at deflecting attention from the violence in Pakistan over the suspension of the country's chief justice.

Pakistani officials today could not be contacted immediately for comment about the reported exchange of fire.

Relations between the neighbours have deteriorated sharply over the past 18 months, largely over Afghan complaints that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop Taliban insurgents operating from the Pakistani side of the disputed border.

The clash comes two weeks after Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met for the first time in months and agreed to step up security cooperation.

Afghanistan says a resurgent Taliban are operating from Pakistani sanctuaries. Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, denies that and says the root of the Taliban problem is in Afghanistan.

Stung by accusations it is not doing enough to stop the insurgents, Pakistan has begun building a fence along parts of the border to stop militant infiltration. But Afghanistan opposes fencing a border it has never recognised.

Disagreement over the internationally recognised border, known as the Durand Line after the British colonial administrator who drew it, has bedevilled relations since Pakistan's creation in 1947.

Pakistan is also deeply suspicious of involvement of its old rival, India, in Afghanistan.

REUTERS GT HS1320