Pakistan offers to build fence on Afghan border

Under criticism that Pakistan is not doing enough to counter terrorism, President Pervez Musharraf today offered to construct a security fence to deter incursion of militants and drug merchants from Afghanistan.

Musharraf made the offer at a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that was expanded to 75 minutes from the 30 minutes originally planned. It sets the stage for President George Bush’s meeting with the Pakistani leader tomorrow.

“We don’t ever want anybody to say Pakistan is not doing enough,” Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said. The minister said he was “fed up” over such allegations.

Declining to say whether Rice expressed support for the idea, Kasuri said “she heard us out” and was “very appreciative” of Pakistan’s desire to help stop infiltration from both sides of the border with Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden, head of the al Qaida terror network who has eluded US and other efforts to capture him, is believed to be hiding in the border area.

Kasuri said the fence would be designed to deter infiltration in both directions, but as envisioned by the Pakistan government there would be arrangements for controlled crossings.

“Pakistan has nothing to hide,” he said. “And we are fed up with people who say Pakistan has to do more to counter terrorism.”

On Friday, Musharraf told The Associated Press that his government has proposed building a barbed-wire fence along the border to help keep Islamic insurgents from crossing the area freely.

Kasuri did not specify the form a fence would take, such as barbed wire or solid material. The route the barrier would take has not been decided, he said. Kasuri said the aim would be to screen out warlords and narcotics trade as well as terrorists.

“We have a very strong interest in peace and stability in Asia,” he said.

Rice made no statement after the meeting and there was no official US reaction.

The assembly of more than 170 world leaders to mark the United Nations’ 60th birthday gives Rice a unique opportunity to advanc US foreign policy goals on several difficult fronts.

Success is by no means assured. While the US is the largest contributor and the world’s only real superpower, it cannot count on the United Nations for automatic support.

Rice’s lobbying, and Bush’s appearance before the world body on Wednesday, come at a moment when the US is looking unusually vulnerable to foreign eyes following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation and international opposition to the war it is fighting against insurgents in Iraq.

Rice’s drive to pressure Iran to resume negotiations on its nuclear programme is a key test. Any US resolution in the UN Security Council to censure Iran or to impose sanctions runs the risk of being vetoed.

Pakistan appealed, meanwhile, for a peaceful resolution of the dispute. Kasuri said at his news conference Pakistan was a friend and neighbour of Iran.

Rice is appealing openly to China and Russia, which have veto power, to join in sending a “unified message” to Tehran.

Russia remains dubious about having the council take up the issue. On Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko called it a hasty step.

Rice is also trying to advance two Mideast goals: pressure Syria to keep hands off Lebanon and to spur Israel and the Palestinians to use the momentum of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza to move toward creation of a Palestinian state.

She plans to meet with Arab and European leaders on Syria as a UN inquiry explores whether Syria played a role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafil Hariri last February in Beirut.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has cancelled plans to attend UN sessions.