KABUL, March 20: US Vice President Dick Cheney said on Thursday that Pakistan’s new government had a duty to battle extremists and that he was confident they would, as he made a surprise visit to Afghanistan.

“I expect they’ll be good and effective friends and allies of the United States, just as the previous government has been,” Mr Cheney told a joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“I have no reason to doubt their commitment to dealing with the problems that emerge” from the troubled tribal area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the vice president said.

He said the new Pakistani government had “as big a stake as anyone else” in fighting militancy.

President Pervez Musharraf faces a parliamentary fight for his political survival after his backers were trounced at the Feb 18 polls. The PPP of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto won the most seats in the elections and has agreed to form a coalition with the PML headed by another former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The emerging government has “as big a stake as anyone else in dealing with the threat that sometimes emerges from those areas along the border,” said Mr Cheney.

Pakistani authorities and the US Central Intelligence Agency have accused an Al Qaeda-linked militant based in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, Baitullah Mehsud, of slaying Benazir Bhutto in a gun-and-bomb suicide attack on Dec 27, 2007.

“A government has an obligation to control its sovereign territory, to make certain that that territory doesn’t become a safe haven or a sanctuary for, especially, terrorist groups,” said the US vice-president.

“I would expect that Pakistan will certainly fulfil that obligation in the years ahead,” he added. President Karzai, who had sometimes tense relations with Mr Musharraf over the border issue, said that “the threat of terrorism is something that endangers both the nations, which requires the full cooperation between the two countries.”

Meanwhile, the Afghan president and American vice president urged Nato to sustain and even expand its work to crush extremists in Afghanistan and rebuild the war-torn country.

“We believe that that commitment needs to continue and perhaps be reinforced,” said the vice president.

Cheney met Karzai to assess internationally aided efforts to fight the Taliban, a focus of a Nato summit in early April where Washington hopes alliance members will increase troops and resources.

“The United States and the other members of the coalition need to have a sufficient force here to be able to ensure security,” Cheney told reporters after meeting Karzai in the fortress-like presidential palace.

Karzai said that Afghan security forces, being built with international assistance, would not be able to stand on their feet for some time.

“Some day Afghanistan will be fully in charge of the security of this country, defending the borders,” the US-backed president said. “But that is not going to be anytime soon.”

The Taliban insurgency was its deadliest last year, with unrest killing more than 8,000 people, according to United Nations figures. Most of the dead were militants but 1,500 civilians also lost their lives, the UN says.

The country is braced for another tough year and military officials have called for Nato partners to send more troops and equipment, especially to the south of the country where the fighting is the most fierce.

After some bickering in recent weeks about the campaign in Afghanistan, officials are hoping the upcoming Nato summit beginning on April 2 will see extra pledges of troops, equipment and resources.—AFP