US welcomes new Afghan, Pakistan cooperation

KABUL (AFP) – The United States welcomed pledges by Afghanistan and Pakistan to forge better ties and fight extremism together, a top US official said Wednesday, calling cooperation the "only way to beat the menace."

The Islamic neighbors signed a declaration on Tuesday in Kabul, committing themselves to bilateral cooperation and determined efforts against extremism in what Afghan President Hamid Karzai hailed as a "new relationship."

"The United States very much welcomes the cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan," US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher told reporters in Kabul.

Pakistan and Afghanistan both have a "strong determination to fight terrorism and to make their citizens safe" that is shared by the United States, said Boucher, who visited Islamabad earlier this week.

"We think that the only way we can beat the menace, beat back the Taliban and terrorists that are threatening Pakistan and the Afghans, is by having that kind of Afghanistan and Pakistan relationship, and both have strong US support for doing that," he said.

The United States led the 2001 invasion that removed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which had sheltered the Al-Qaeda network blamed for the September 11 attacks that killed around 3,000 people.

The extremists fled across the border into Pakistan, where they are said to have regrouped, establishing sanctuaries and training camps from which they launch attacks into Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Pakistan's military has mounted major anti-militant offensives in the rugged tribal areas on the Afghan border, which Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Wednesday had been a "great success in the last few months".

Washington has about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, a number which is due to double this year, as part of multinational efforts to root out the extremists.