NATO says kills 150 insurgents in Afghanistan

Afghanistan says the militants have sanctuaries in Pakistan from where they plot and launch attacks.

FRUSTRATION

Pakistan was the main supporter of the Taliban until the September 11 attacks. It denies any official help for the Taliban but says some militants are crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistani tribal lands where Pakistani forces have been battling militants.

An increasingly frustrated Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, leveled his strongest ever criticism at Pakistan last month, for the first time openly accusing state elements of supporting the insurgents.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said Pakistan was committed to battling militancy.

"We think that commitment is real," Boucher told a news conference in Kabul when asked about Afghan doubts Pakistan was doing enough to stop the Taliban.

"There are always questions, with all of us, about what more we need to do to make these policies effective," he said.

Boucher was due to travel to Pakistan for talks that he expected would include a Pakistani plan to build a fence and lay landmines on parts of the border to stop infiltration.

Afghanistan opposes the plan. It does not recognize the colonial-era border and says the fortifications would unfairly divide Pashtun communities straddling the frontier. Pakistan should crack down on Taliban there, it says.

(Additional reporting by Robert Birsel in KABUL, Saeed Ali Achakzai in SPIN BOLDAK)