World unsafe without Pak help: Karzai

Karzai's comments were the latest in a tit-for-tat exchange between the allies in the US-led "war on terror", in which Islamabad has rubbished Kabul's intelligence about Taliban and al-Qaeda militants on Pakistani soil.

The Afghan leader said at a media conference with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the world must unite against militancy because "terrorism can affect any one, anytime and anywhere."

"Pakistan and Afghanistan are the central pieces in this war against terror and unless there is sincere, intense, systematic cooperation from all sides, the world would not be safe," Karzai said.

"Therefore it is extremely important that our brothers in Pakistan join us in the most intense manner -- that is the need of the hour in the fight against terrorism," he said.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have worsened since Afghan officials handed the intelligence to Pakistan during a visit by Karzai last month.

Afghanistan, which says a deadly insurgency plaguing the country is being directed from across the border, has said the information included sightings in Pakistan of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf slammed Karzai in an interview with CNN this month, saying he was "oblivious" to events in his own country and blasting the intelligence as "nonsense".

During its 1996-2001 hold on power in Afghanistan, the Islamist Taliban regime sheltered the al-Qaeda network blamed for deadly attacks including the September 11 assault on the United States.

In fresh violence, at least 10 people, half of them police, were killed in new attacks across troubled Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.

In the deadliest incident, militants believed loyal to the Islamist Taliban regime overthrown four years ago attacked a police post in the insurgency-hit southern province of Kandahar late Monday, the interior ministry said.

The attack sparked a three-hour exchange of fire. "Five police were killed and six were wounded in the terrorists' attack on a police post in Miansheen district last night," ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told AFP.