WASHINGTON, July 15: Pakistan’s controls on its border with Afghanistan are a “real concern” for the US, the State Department said after an attack two days ago killed nine American soldiers at a camp near the frontier.

Meanwhile, a Pentagon news agency — the American Armed Forces Press Service — quoted US and Nato officials as describing the situation in Pakistan “dysfunctional”.

“There is a deep concern about cross-border infiltration from Pakistan into Afghanistan and then back over the border,” spokesman Sean McCormack said at a briefing in Washington on Monday.

The State Department spokesman, however, rejected the suggestion that those who killed nine US soldiers in Kunar on Sunday were linked to Kashmiri groups operating from Pakistan.

“I don’t know any connection between the fire-fight yesterday and that report,” said Mr McCormack while referring to a report which says the Kashmiris were involved in Sunday’s attack.

The United States believes that Pakistan’s policy of holding talks with militants in the tribal areas has led to increased attacks by Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.

Twenty-eight coalition soldiers were killed in June in the deadliest month for the force in Afghanistan since the conflict began there in 2001. Terrorist incidents in eastern Afghanistan were 50 per cent higher in April than the same month in 2007, according to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

At the State Department briefing, Mr McCormack said that fighting terrorists in the tribal areas was also important for Pakistan because they pose a threat to Pakistan’s security as well. “It’s fundamental to the security of both of those countries, because you have people operating out of Pakistan that pose a threat to Afghanistan,” he said.

“Ultimately, too, let’s remember that those kinds of groups, those kinds of individuals aren’t necessarily content to direct their energies outwardly, and they pose a real threat to Pakistan and the Pakistani people as well.”

Mr McCormack, however, noted that Pakistan understands the importance of engaging in the counterterrorism fight and has conveyed its commitment to the Americans.

The United States, he said, raises these issues in closed-door meetings with the Pakistanis and does so more forcefully. “I don’t want to get into specifics. I’ll leave that for closed-door diplomacy. But it is a real concern for us,” he said.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters that Nato and US officials are working with the army and government representatives in Pakistan to address the situation inside Fata.

“There have been a number of discussions in recent weeks, and I suspect those will continue as we try to address the border region in a comprehensive way,” Mr Whitman said. “It has many facets to it, and we are looking to address it on all of those levels that we can.”

In a report posted on the Pentagon website, the American Armed Forces Press Service quoted US Defence Department officials as saying that Pakistan’s tribal areas have been used by Taliban extremists to regroup and plan attacks on Nato and Afghan National Army bases.