BRUSSELS, Jan 31: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Tuesday pledged tougher action to stop Taliban insurgents from crossing into Afghanistan but agreed that military solutions alone could not stabilise the violence-torn country.

Toning down Nato’s earlier demands that Pakistan step up efforts to halt cross-border Taliban infiltration, Mr Scheffer told reporters: "It does not make sense to have a blame game in public... we should all do more."

He said efforts were needed on both sides to protect the ‘porous and complicated’ Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Nato also believed that there was no military solution in Afghanistan, he said, adding that ‘comprehensive efforts’ were needed to boost development aid and reconstruction efforts through the country.

Alliance officials said Nato shared Pakistan's view that Afghan refugee camps in the country were a breeding ground for militants.

Mr Scheffer's comments came after Prime Minister Aziz spent two hours talking to senior Nato ambassadors on Islamabad's policy towards Afghanistan.

European Union officials told Dawn that Mr Aziz had delivered an equally strong message to EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana.

Anxious to fend off criticism that Pakistan was harbouring, training and backing Taliban militants, Mr Aziz insisted that Pakistan must not be turned into a ‘scapegoat’ for Nato's troubled military operations in increasingly volatile southern Afghanistan.

Such public accusations only ‘emboldened the enemy’, he warned and said Islamabad needed more help to control the mountainous border with Afghanistan.

He said aid funds were also needed to promote development on both sides of the border to combat the root causes of extremism and terrorism.

"The battle in Afghanistan is to win the hearts and minds of people," he said, warning that Nato troops in the country were currently viewed as ‘forces of occupation rather than allies’.

He shrugged off ‘baseless allegations’ that Pakistan was not doing enough to stop infiltration of Taliban insurgents.

"Instead of looking for scapegoats, it would be more desirable to increase cooperation, especially through real time intelligence sharing, Mr Aziz told Nato ambassadors.

"The problem lies within Afghanistan and so does the solution," he asserted.

The prime minister rejected criticism of his government’s pact with tribal leaders in North Waziristan, saying that if needed, Islamabad would not hesitate from using force against Taliban hideouts in the region.

The accord remained open to ‘review and amendments’, he said.

He stressed the need for ensuring an early return of three million Afghan refugees, saying that the northern Pakistani camps they lived in had become ‘safe havens for terrorists and criminals’.

As an initial step, two camps on Pakistan's side of the border were being moved to Afghanistan, he said, adding that Afghan authorities agreed that refugees must return home.

A Nato official said governments in Nato member-countries shared Pakistan's view that the refugee camps posed a real security risk and become a ‘fertile recruiting ground for extremists’.

However, the United Nations would have to take the lead in ensuring their closure and the return of refugees to Afghanistan ‘in a proper manner’, the official said.

Mr Aziz also warned that fighting Afghan drug production was crucial given the link between narcotics and terrorism. The influence of warlords and drug barons in Afghanistan must be curtained, he said.