By Golnar Motevalli

KABUL, Nov 23 (Reuters) - NATO said on Sunday cooperation between its troops in Afghanistan and the Pakistani army is the best it has ever been, as the two forces hit Taliban insurgents in a coordinated operation from both sides of the border.

Tension has risen between Pakistan and Western forces in Afghanistan in recent months over increased U.S. missile strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda militants on the Pakistani side of the mountainous, porous border.

But operations launched by NATO forces in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province and by Pakistani troops in the adjacent Bajaur district on the other side of the border represented a new level of cooperation, the spokesman said.

"The cooperation with the Pakistani forces is ... the best it has ever been," said Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

The cooperation was the result of tripartite meetings between ISAF, the Afghan military and Pakistani forces, he said.

"This is not only a cooperation in the execution. This is also a cooperation that has happened in the planning," Blanchette said.

The pressure on Taliban militants on both sides of the border may hamper the insurgents' usual winter withdrawal from Afghanistan into Pakistan's tribal regions, analysts say.

Washington and its NATO allies have been trying to foster cooperation between neighbours Afghanistan and Pakistan since the emergence of a civilian government in Islamabad and the election of Asif Ali Zardari as president there in September.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has formed a good working relationship with Zardari, diplomats say, in contrast to the often acrimonious relations the Afghan leader had with Zardari's predecessor President Pervez Musharraf.

Karzai repeatedly accused elements within Pakistani intelligence service under Musharraf of secretly arming, training and equipping the Taliban in order to keep Afghanistan weak.

Violence has risen sharply in Afghanistan with at least 4,000 people killed this year, a third of them civilians.

Taliban attacks have spread from the traditional militant strongholds in the south and east to areas closer to the capital, Kabul, prompting a major U.S. review of strategy in a war that is now in its eighth year and shows no sign of any let-up. (Editing by Dominic Evans)

AlertNet news is provided by