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PERTH, Australia: The United States and Australia on Friday urged Pakistan to do more to control militant activity in its border areas to stem the growing insurgency in Afghanistan.
"There's an uptick in the terrorism, not just against forces but against the Afghan people," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"And in that regard, everybody needs to do more. But Pakistan does need to do more," said Rice, responding to a question at a joint news conference with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith during a brief visit to Perth.
"We understand that it's difficult, we understand the North West Frontier area is difficult. But militants cannot be allowed to organise there and to plan there and to engage across the borders," she said.
Smith described the area as "a hotbed of terrorism," saying that what happened there had regional and international consequences.
"We are very concerned about the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and we don't believe that can be regarded as a bilateral matter between Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said.
"This is an area where both the regional community and the international community need to do more. We do need to engage Pakistan more in a dialogue," he said, adding that he had raised the issue with Islamabad.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is expected to face searching questions about his commitment to fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants along the Afghan border when he flies to Washington this weekend.
Gilani's visit comes amid mounting fears in Pakistan that the United States is prepared to launch military "hot pursuit" raids into the troubled Pakistani tribal belt as attacks soar in Afghanistan.
Rice, on a brief visit to Smith's hometown of Perth, earlier visited the barracks of the elite SAS special forces unit which has served alongside US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years.
She also honoured Australia's war dead by laying a wreath at the cenotaph in the city's Kings Park. She was due to depart for New Zealand later Friday.
- AFP/jk
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