ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will visit Pakistan early next week for talks with President Pervez Musharraf on the threat from Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, official sources said on Saturday.

It will be Gates’ first visit to the key US ally in the “war on terror” since he came to office late last year. He is expected to fly to Afghanistan afterwards.

Gates’ visit will be closely followed by separate visits to the region by Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and two top diplomats from the United States and Britain, the sources said.

“These visits are part of a renewed focus on Afghanistan, how to deal with the threat posed by Taliban,” a senior Pakistani official said. Afghanistan suffered its bloodiest year in 2006 with more than 4,000 people killed, mostly militants, sometimes in pitched battles between Taliban-led insurgents and Nato-led troops in regions bordering Pakistan.

Pakistan has faced mounting accusations that it did not stop Taliban using its territory as a sanctuary and launching pad for attacks inside Afghanistan, where the hardliners were ousted from power in late 2001 by the US-led forces.

The foreign forces in Afghanistan are bracing for an expected surge in Taliban violence in coming months and Nato has said it wants to reinforce its 35,000 troop-deployment in the war-torn country.

Musharraf recently said security along the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border was the joint responsibility of all the forces, and Pakistan could not win the fight against militancy on its own.

The flurry of diplomatic visits reflects the intense focus on Pakistan in efforts to control the Taliban, said defence analyst retired Gen (R) Talat Masood.

“The expected so-called spring offensive by Taliban will be very damaging to the interest of United States and Western countries and they know they cannot afford to lose,” said Masood.

“That is why they want Pakistan to be very cooperative and are appreciate of its role, understand the difficulties it faces in controlling the border areas. They want to help Pakistan the best way they can. ”Pakistan insists the basic problem lies in Afghanistan where Musharraf has warned the continued alienation of ethnic Pashtuns is the biggest threat to security.

Islamabad has been pursuing a two-pronged policy of using force against militant pockets while also negotiating with local Taliban to wean them away from extremism, said the Pakistani official, who does not want to be identified.

Pakistan has defended a controversial peace deal signed in Sept with tribal elders and local Taliban in North Waziristan district which has been widely criticised by Afghan and Western officials.

It has also advised Afghanistan to follow its lead by working for reconciliation with former warlords and militants.

Afghanistan's lower house of parliament this month passed a draft bill offering amnesty for crimes and abuse in the country's 25 years of war, but President Hamid Karzai's office said he was unlikely to approve the bill.--Agencies

Shadaba Islam adds: Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Saturday, Pakistan’s cooperation was crucial in the alliance’s struggle against a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan is vital to our success in Afghanistan,” Scheffer told the Munich Security Conference.

Mr Scheffer said NATO had close “military to military relations” with Pakistan and was currently seeking more intensive political contacts with Islamabad.

“It is very important to have serious political dialogue with Pakistan,” said the Nato chief, adding that public rhetoric against Pakistan was “unhelpful.”

In his speech to the conference, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri cautioned Nato and Afghanistan to stop blaming Pakistan for the Taliban insurgency, saying such criticism played into the hands of extremists.

Making Pakistan responsible for the cross-border activities of the Taliban was “counter-productive and dangerous, said Mr Kasuri.

Such “insensitive criticism” was distracting from the real challenges of reconstruction, national reconciliation and development facing Afghanistan, the foreign minister said.

Mr Kasuri insisted that the “insurgency in Afghanistan is conducted by Afghans operating inside Afghan borders,” a point made by a recent report by the United Nations.

Pakistan wanted Nato to help relocate Afghan refugee camps inside Afghanistan, said Mr Kasuri.

He also highlighted the Pakistan’s military struggle against Taliban, saying the number of Pakistani soldiers who had lost their lives in such operations was higher than the losses incurred by Nato soldiers in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan has apprehended hundreds of Taliban and handed them to Afghanistan,” said Mr Kasuri, adding that Islamabad was working to stop the cross-border infiltration of insurgents through tougher frontier controls and selective financing.

Mr Kasuri said hard work should replace “rhetoric and slogans” and argued that the Taliban was as much against Pakistan government policy as they were against Afghanistan.

The “common challenge” needed to be addressed together, he insisted.

“The blame game plays directly into hands of those who do not wish relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan to grow.”

The US Senator John McCain, a frontrunner for the 2008 US presidential election, said it was important to improve relations between the Pakistani and Afghan leaders.

“We don’t succeed when there is this very unhealthy relationship between the presidents of the two neighbouring countries. It’s very disturbing, said McCain.