KABUL/KANDAHAR, Jan 8: The United Nations and Canada on Monday rejected Pakistan’s plan to mine its border with Afghanistan, with former demanding Islamabad to drop the plan while the latter describing the move as unacceptable.

“This will not contribute to better security in either country,” UN deputy representative in Afghanistan, Chris Alexander, told reporters.

Pakistan has said it will mine and fence part of the rugged 2,500-kilometre border to block Taliban militants that cross from Pakistan to fight in Afghanistan.

“The United Nations and most of the countries of the world are convinced that use of landmines is a very serious threat to the human security of the populations that live nearby the places where they are laid,” Alexander said.

Pakistan is one of about 40 countries, including China and the United States, that have not signed a world convention agreed in Ottawa in 1997 to ban the use of landmines.

“We hope all the nations of the world can convince Pakistan and the other countries that haven't signed the convention of the threat and dangers to ordinary human beings that land mines present,” Alexander said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has also rejected the plan, saying it would split families and tribes who straddle the border and does not address the root causes of the insurgency.

The UN representative also said the world body was concerned about support in Pakistan for the Taliban movement.—AFP