Pakistan offers to fence Afghan border

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (L) shakes hands with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf (R) Monday, just before their meeting in New York. PHOTO: AFP

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made the offer during talks in New York with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said after the 75-minute meeting.

Musharraf and Rice are among scores of foreign leaders and ministers in New York for a UN summit. Musharraf is expected to meet US President George W. Bush later this week.

"Pakistan is prepared to raise a fence so that we can put an end to these allegations," Kasuri told reporters, without specifying exactly where and when a fence could be erected, how long it would be, or who would pay for it.

"Pakistan can do nothing more than that to prevent incursions," he said of proposals for a fence, adding: "We are fed up of people who say we have to do more."

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been strained because of complaints from the government in Kabul that Islamabad could do more to stop Taliban fighters infiltrating from Pakistan's tribal areas.

The United States has also wanted to see Pakistan act against Taliban insurgents harassing US forces in Afghanistan in the run up to parliamentary elections on September 18, which are being held nearly four years after US-led troops toppled the Taliban government for giving refuge to Osama bin Laden.

Kasuri said Rice "heard out the offer" to erect a fence, adding that she had been "very appreciative" of the role played by Pakistan before the elections in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has sent thousands of troops to its western border to choke off a Taliban-led insurgency in the weeks before the poll.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview broadcast yesterday called upon the United States and the international community to reconsider the strategy for fighting terrorism in the war-torn country.

Speaking less than a week before milestone legislative elections that Taliban rebels have threatened to derail, Karzai told the BBC that there should be a focus on the "sources of terrorism".