Karzai tells Pakistan's PM ties worsening

Karzai tells Pakistan's PM ties worsening

ABUL, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have deteriorated sharply over the past year, underscored by a lack of trust, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday. Ties between the countries, major U.S. allies in the war against terrorism, have been hurt largely due to the help resurgent Taliban rebels get on the Pakistani side of the border, Karzai said after meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. "I explained ... about terrorism, about the burning of schools," Karzai told a news conference with Aziz in Kabul. "And that, unfortunately, the gap in ties is increasing between Afghanistan and Pakistan ... It is with a lot of regret that relations face a lack of trust," he said. More than 4,000 people including nearly 170 foreign troops have been killed in Afghan violence over the past year, the bloodiest since U.S.-led troops overthrew a Taliban government in 2001. In the latest violence, five members of a pro-government militia force were killed in a remote-controlled blast in the southern province of Uruzgan late on Wednesday, an Afghan army commander said. Afghanistan says the Taliban are only as strong as they are because of the help they can get on the Pakistani side of the border. An angry Karzai last month for the first time publicly accused the Pakistani government of involvement in helping the Taliban. "COMMITTED" Pakistan, which backed the Taliban before the Sept. 11 attacks on the Untied States, denies helping them but says some militants are able to cross the porous frontier. Stung by criticism from Afghanistan and its allies over Taliban sanctuaries, Pakistan said last month it would build a fence and lay landmines on parts of the border to stop militants crossing into Afghanistan. But Afghanistan, which does not recognise the border, said the fence and mines would unfairly split ethnic Pashtun communities that straddle both sides of the 2,500 km (1,500 mile) frontier. Afghanistan said action should be taken against militant leaders operating in Pakistan instead of fencing the border. While Karzai told the news conference he had received assurances from Aziz on addressing Afghanistan's concerns, Aziz said security challenges existed in both countries and they needed to cooperate. "Pakistan as a country, as a government, is totally committed in fighting terrorism, extremism ... we need to face these challenges because it is in our respective national interests," Aziz told the news conference. Aziz said Pakistan would go ahead with its plan to fence and mine parts of the border with Afghanistan. He also said a Pakistani commission was looking into how a grand council of tribal elders from both countries might be convened to look into ways to end the Afghan violence. No dates have been fixed for the councils which Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf agreed upon during talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in September.