July 31, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 27, 1429

CANBERRA, July 30: Australia will offer military advisers to Pakistan to train security forces to fight Taliban and Al Qaeda militants taking sanctuary there from neighbouring Afghanistan, the government said on Wednesday.

Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon called for a bigger international effort, including more economic and military aid, to combat Taliban militants based in Pakistan’s largely tribal border areas.

“We must arm the Pakistani army with the skills and means to conduct counter-insurgency campaigns and civil operations,” Fitzgibbon said in a speech, warning Pakistan must not become a breeding ground for Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah militants.

Fitzgibbon said this month he was “pessimistic” about the security situation in Afghanistan, where Australia has 1,080 troops. He said Pakistan must be secured for the US and Nato-led war effort against Afghanistan militants to succeed.

“Despite their best efforts, and their heavy losses ..., they are making only limited headway in dealing with the lawlessness in that particular region,” he told the National Press Club.

A southeast Asia-based militant group Jemaah Islamiah has been linked to a series of bombings in Indonesia, including blasts on the holiday island of Bali between 2002 and 2005 in which 92 Australians died.

Australia, a close US ally, was an original member of the coalition that invaded the country to oust Afghanistan’s Taliban militants from their country.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have deteriorated sharply in recent months as Kabul repeatedly accused Pakistani agents of secretly backing Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and foreign troops.

Pakistan’s new civilian government has launched talks with militants in its tribal border region to defuse violence that has killed hundreds of Pakistanis in the past year.

Fitzgibbon said any assistance to Pakistan would have to come at the invitation of the country’s government and Australia planned to open talks on military and economic aid soon. “I’m not talking about a deployment which requires force protection and sending people into the tribal areas. I may only be talking about military advisers in Islamabad,” he said.—Reuters