Pakistan-Afghan cooperation must continue - Karzai
Source: Reuters
LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Pakistan has shown signs of cooperating with Afghanistan to stop the flow of unwanted Taliban militants across a shared border in past months and this must continue, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday. Karzai, speaking after talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair, said security in Afghanistan had improved since September. "We see signs of that cooperation emerging in a more clear way, in a more determined way. We will continue to seek that," Karzai told a news conference when asked about the inflow of militants from Pakistan. "We have been fairly secure since September last year." Afghanistan and Pakistan have been at odds over the porous, 2,500 km (1,500 miles) common border that has become a major front line in the U.S.-led war on terrorism and Karzai has been critical of Pakistan's failure to stop the militants. Pakistan, which has more troops manning the border than Afghanistan and its Western allies, has acknowledged some militants are slipping into Afghanistan and said it intends to build a fence to prevent them crossing the frontier. The United States sees 2007 as a crunch year in alliance efforts to crush an insurgency which has got progressively worse since the Taliban were ousted from Afghanistan for their role in sheltering the al Qaeda network which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. NATO, U.S. and Taliban commanders have warned of an increase in fighting in the spring when the snow melts, and NATO has pressed the European Union to do more in Afghanistan as the alliance seeks to find more troops for its force. Blair said Britain was trying to convince other countries to send more troops to the NATO operation in Afghanistan. "NATO has already made clear what is necessary and we're now trying to make sure that is delivered and the British contribution is considerable," he said. Karzai also rejected suggestions that Afghan refugees living in Pakistan were the source of terrorism.
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