Rice: Pakistan should do more to end violence

[July 25, 2008]  PERTH, Australia (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Pakistan needs to do more to prevent Taliban militants from launching attacks into Afghanistan from its territory.

Speaking Friday in Australia, Rice suggested to reporters that a surge in Taliban-related violence in Afghanistan had its source in the restive semiautonomous tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

"We understand that it's difficult, we understand that the northwest frontier area is difficult, but militants cannot be allowed to organize there and to plan there and to engage across the border," Rice said. "So yes, more needs to be done."

The strong message to Islamabad comes just a few days before Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to meet with President Bush at the White House.

The Pakistani government has consistently said it will not allow its territory to be used for terrorism or to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has also resisted suggestions that U.S. or other foreign troops should be allowed into the remote region to combat the militants. Gilani is seeking peace deals with militants through tribal elders in the northwestern regions of Pakistan.

Rice received strong support from Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who described the border region as "the current international hotbed of terrorism."

He said the threat posed by terrorists who may be hiding there was too great to leave Afghanistan and Pakistan to deal with alone.

"We are very concerned about the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area," Smith said. "We don't believe that can be regarded simply as a bilateral matter between Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is an issue which has regional and international community consequences."

Australia has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, the largest deployment of any country outside the NATO alliance.

While Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new government withdrew its combat forces from Iraq last month, it says it has no plans to draw down its troops in Afghanistan. Smith said Australia had no plans to increase its troop numbers there, either.

Rice was also asked if there was hope that current peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians could come to fruition before Bush leaves the White House at the end of his second term early next year.

"There is still time for them to, in accordance with Annapolis, reach agreement by the end of the year," Rice said, referring to the city in Maryland where the initial peace accord was reached. "We will keep working toward that goal."

Talks between the two sides resumed last year after a seven-year breakdown. Among the thorny issues being discussed is the formation of a Palestinian state. Palestinians want the final deal to outline a Palestinian state that includes most of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

A new hurdle to the talks arose Thursday when a key planning committee approved construction of a new Israeli settlement in the West Bank. The plan still needs final authorization from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but the decision infuriated Palestinians, who say settlement building cripples peace efforts.

Rice is to sit down with senior negotiators from each side next week in Washington for three-way talks.

"The important thing right now is to take note of how seriously they are negotiating, to note that there was not even last year a peace process at this time, and to recognize that since this president came to office, the notion of two states living side-by-side in peace and security has become common wisdom," Rice said.

Rice made a brief visit Friday to the Western Australian state capital of Perth at the invitation of Smith, who lives there. She later flew to Auckland, New Zealand, for talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark.

[Associated Press; By MATTHEW LEE]

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