Pakistan needs to do more to prevent Taliban militants from launching attacks into Afghanistan from its territory, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday according to The Associated Press. Speaking in Australia, Rice suggested to reporters that a surge in Taliban-related violence in Afghanistan had its source in the restive semiautonomous tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. «We understand that it's difficult, we understand that the northwest frontier area is difficult, but militants cannot be allowed to organize there and to plan there and to engage across the border,» Rice said. «So yes, more needs to be done.» The strong message to Islamabad comes just a few days before Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is to meet U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House. The Pakistani government has consistently said it will not allow its soil to be used for terrorism or to launch attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan has also strongly resisted suggestions that U.S. or other foreign troops should be allowed into the region to combat the militants. Gilani is seeking peace deals with militants through tribal elders in the northwestern regions of Pakistan.
