Nato commander to talk with Musharraf

Britain's General David Richards, who last week became commander of foreign troops across Afghanistan, is to hold "full and frank" discussions with the Pakistan leader, a spokesman for the force said.

The International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) would not give a date for the visit to Islamabad for security reasons. Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said the trip was due on Monday.

Isaf also dismissed the newspaper's claim that Richards would "confront" Musharraf about the insurgency and try to persuade him to rein in his military intelligence service, alleged by some to be involved in training Taliban.

"It would be entirely inaccurate to describe the visit to Pakistan as a confrontation," Nato civilian representative Mark Laity said.

"The visit is intended to work at developing cooperation between the two nations on the military side."

"Not in any sense are we telling Pakistan what to do -- that would be entirely inappropriate," he added.

The Sunday Times said Richards had videos and satellite pictures of Taliban training camps inside Pakistan, and had compiled the addresses of senior Taliban figures.

Isaf on Thursday took command of foreign soldiers who had been under the US-led coalition in the east of Afghanistan, extending its authority across the whole of the country.

With the transfer of command, Richards became the commander of an expanded Isaf force now numbering 31,000 troops from 37 nations.

Meanwhile, the number of insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan has halved in the past month and the incidents that have occurred have been less ferocious than previously, the Nato-led force said yesterday.

But the Taliban are still a dangerous threat with their use of suicide and improvised bombings likely to increase even further, Nato spokesman Mark Laity told reporters.