KRAKOW, Feb 19: Nato officials say they are confident Pakistan’s government remains a dedicated partner in the fight against terrorism despite a decision to impose Islamic law in a strategic northwestern territory.

Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said at an informal meeting of the organisation’s defence ministers on Thursday that Pakistan was “part of the solution”.

Nato spokesman James Appathurai said the organisation believed Islamabad had the “firm intention” to tackle extremism.

Mr Scheffer said militants fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan were also trying to destabilise Pakistan, and the alliance should therefore take a more regional approach to the Afghan conflict.

Nato needed to bolster its contacts with Pakistan because its stability was crucial to the success of the Nato’s Afghan mission, he added.

“We should increase military-to-military engagement in Pakistan and deepen the political dialogue,” Mr Scheffer told reporters at the start of the two-day meeting.

“I can say again that I believe the Pakistani government is serious about fighting extremism. What we need in Nato is to stop seeing Afghanistan in isolation and to start seeing it in a more regional approach.

“That is why we deepen our cooperation with Pakistan because the same people are trying to destabilise the situation in Afghanistan and in Pakistan,” he said.

Nato heads an international force battling Taliban militants in Afghanistan. The Pakistan army is struggling to quell Taliban insurgencies dotted across its own northwest region.

Earlier this week, Nato had expressed concerns after Pakistan signed a pact with Islamists to introduce Islamic law in Swat valley in an effort to take the steam out of a Taliban uprising there.

Western officials fear the move will encourage militancy in the region at a time when US President Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 more troops to go to Afghanistan.—Agencies