April 14, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1429

KANDAHAR, April 13: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kou-chner said on Sunday that Taliban violence in Afghanistan could only be stopped with the help of Pakistan.

Mr Kouchner made these comments during a joint visit to the Nato airbase in southern Kandahar with his Canadian counterpart Maxime Bernier. Both countries have troops deployed in the volatile area to help Kabul fight the Taliban militants.

“Further military means are needed in order for the process of securing Afghanistan to proceed... but there must also be a regional view, particularly with regards to neighbouring Pakistan,” Mr Kouchner said.

He said he had on Saturday discussed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai efforts to step up security along the common border, which is 2,500km long, runs through difficult terrain and is difficult to patrol.

Ties between Kabul and Islamabad have been fragile, with each accusing the other of not doing enough to tackle extremists behind a wave of deadly suicide attacks and bomb blasts on both sides of the porous border.

“This is an Afghan-Pakistan problem, but this incredible looseness which allows all sorts of trafficking cannot be allowed to continue,” Mr Kouchner asserted.

“This border problem needs to be resolved, and if we can take part in that process, that would be great,” he said, adding he had plans to meet Pakistan’s new leadership

Mr Kouchner and Mr Bernier had travelled to Kandahar earlier on Sunday in separate planes, to wrap up their two-day joint visit to Afghanistan.

They visited the French air force contingent serving with both the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force and a separate US-led coalition.

Canada has around 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan, 82 of whom have been killed since 2002.

France earlier this month pledged to nearly double the number of its forces in Afghanistan to 3,000. It currently has about 1,600 soldiers based in the Kabul region, and 160 troops at the Kandahar air base.

A total of about 70,000 foreign soldiers, most of them under Nato command, are still locked down in Afghanistan battling the Taliban resistance, launched shortly after they were ousted from power in late 2001.

—AFP