WASHINGTON, June 17: Pakistan has moved more troops to its western border with Afghanistan over the past two days, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday, as border tensions eased between Pakistan and India.

Two Pakistani companies were added to the forces blocking the movement of Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters across the border with Afghanistan, he told a Pentagon news conference, first since his return from New Delhi and Islamabad.

“Whether it reflects an additional easing of tension for them to characterize, but obviously they had a choice: they could have put those forces on the Indian border, or they could have put them on the Afghanistan border,” he said. “To our advantage, they have put them on the Afghan border.”

Rumsfeld, who visited India and Pakistan last week, was the latest in the series of top US and British officials seeking ease in the tensions to avert a war between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

The Pentagon, apart from fears of a nuclear exchange, is concerned that a conflict with India would undermine US efforts to clear the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters from the Federally Administered Tribal Area.

Rumsfeld said he did not ask whether the troop reinforcements came from the border area with Kashmir, but said “it is helpful and we are pleased.”—AFP