Tuesday, September 13 2005 09:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf yesterday (Sept 12, 2005) unveiled plans to build a 'fence' along the border with Afghanistan to curb the movement of militants bent on destabilizing the Government in Kabul.

Musharraf floated the proposal during a meeting in New York with US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice ahead of the UN summit of world leaders.

"The President offered to Dr. Rice that Pakistan is prepared to make a fence along certain areas which are more amenable to incursions," Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri told reporters after the meeting.

Kasuri said the proposal was aimed at muting accusations that Pakistan has been sluggish in cracking down on militants linked to Afghan's former Taliban regime.

The Taliban was ousted by US-led forces in late 2001, and the militants have used bases on the Pakistan side of the border to launch a campaign of violence across Afghanistan in the run up to parliamentary polls on September 18.

"We don't want anybody, ever, to say Pakistan is not doing enough," said Kasuri, adding that Pakistan would be prepared to erect the fence along the entire length of the border.

"But what the president offered today was that, as a starter, we could have it in certain areas," he said.

"Pakistan can do nothing more than that to show how serious it is as far as preventing incursions."