Washington: "Making Pakistan do more to check the realproblem of increased Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan with strikes atterrorist training camps in north and south Waziristan and Baluchistan isWashington's" major priority, a senior US official says.

Noting that the Taliban increased its insurgency in 2006,Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns acknowledgedFriday, "It's a real problem. There is a problem of forces coming from Pakistan into Afghanistanto attack, and then to return to Pakistan to seek refuge andrefitting."

"US is working very closely with Pakistan PresidentPervez Musharraf and with the Pakistani military and the Pakistani intelligenceservices to see that Islamabad will do more, and make a concerted effort tostrike at those terrorist training camps in north and south Waziristan and inBalochistan," he said.

"That is a major priority for our relations with Pakistan. Nowwe have a very close relationship with Musharraf. We admire what he has doneand what he continues to do to try to strike out at these insurgentgroups," Burns said briefing reporters on the situation in Afghanistan.

"It is a very difficult terrain. It is mountainousterrain. And of course, the Pakistani military has lost hundreds of people inthese counterinsurgency operations in that part of - in those two provinces in Pakistan,"he said.

"So we're working closely with Pakistan, butwe do think a greater effort must be made on both sides of the border to defeatAl Qaeda because it's also attacking across the border as well as theTaliban," Burns said.

Asked if an ongoing spat between AfghanistanPresident Hamid Karzai and Musharraf will impede US hopes for Afghanistan andthe strategy it wants to pursue there, Burns said, "We're working veryclosely with President Karzai and President Musharraf to see that thePakistanian-Afghan political establishments and militaries can work moreeffectively together."

"It's an abiding preoccupation of ours," he added,recalling President George Bush's dinner meeting with the two feuding allies inthe White House last September.

"You've seen that sometimes they have publicdisagreements, but in the main, both governments have indicated to us that theyknow they have to have coordination and cooperation between them to besuccessful," Burns said.
 

Bush, he said,"Congress for $10.6 billion inadditional assistance for Afghanistan because we intend to win in Afghanistan. We intend to defeatthe Taliban, and we intend to help the government of President Karzai."

The increased assistance, he said was not an acknowledgementthat "We've done too little in the past, but is a reflection of theincreased threat from the Taliban in 2006." Nor would he agree that thethreat increased because "you took your eye off the ball".

The aid package was worked out after a strategic review of US policy towards Afghanistan"so that we canhelp the Afghan government succeed and we can defeat the Taliban" Burnsadded.