The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Islamabad

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani left Saturday on a three-day visit to Washington to defend his government's reluctance to use force against Islamic militants blamed by US officials for soaring violence in neighboring Afghanistan.

The trip comes amid intensifying U.S. pressure for Pakistan, a vital ally in its war on terrorism, to move against strongholds that Taliban and al-Qaida militants have established in its border regions.

It will be the first visit by Gilani since he came to power following Feb. 18 elections.

Before his departure, Gilani told reporters that Pakistan was fighting the war on terror in its own interests.

"This is our own fight. This is our own cause," he said, noting that his ruling party's leader, Benazir Bhutto, had died in a terrorist attack on Dec. 27.

Gilani's three-month-old government is persevering with efforts to negotiate peace deals along the wild frontier and stabilize a country roiled by Islamist suicide attacks. Force will be used only as a last resort, he reiterated this past week.

"Pakistan's national security and internal stability is paramount," Information Minister Sherry Rehman said. "Pakistan is making its own policy for its own problems."

Gilani's first plunge into the center of American power begins with separate meetings Monday with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Rice.

His hectic, three-day schedule also includes appointments with lawmakers, academics and journalists. Officials say he may meet with the contenders in November's presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Gilani, whose government is wrestling with daunting economic problems exacerbated by skyrocketing oil prices, also is to meet with members of Bush's economic team and address business leaders.

But the sharpest questions are likely to address the growing disagreement between Islamabad and Washington over how to counter violent Islamic extremists. Al-Qaida leaders are believed to find sanctuary in Pakistan, while American troops in eastern Afghanistan are facing a spike in cross-border attacks by Taliban insurgents.

On Saturday, local newspapers quoted Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik as saying security forces had arrested between 35 and 40 militants, including an al-Qaida commander, during a recent operation in the northwestern town of Hangu.

Since taking over from an administration dominated by U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf, the new government has sought peace pacts with Taliban militants.

U.S. officials have voiced support for efforts to woo moderate tribal elders and isolate hard-liners.

Washington also has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for a drive to bring economic development to the border region that Pakistan hopes will dry up support for extremism. It has funneled more than $10 billion in mostly military aid to Pakistan in the past six years.

But U.S. civilian and military leaders - and the presidential hopefuls - frown on the government's decision to strike cease-fires with militants. They also fear that any agreements - especially clauses on expelling foreign militants and preventing cross-border attacks - will not be enforced.

AFP, adds from Kabul: The NATO chief called Thursday for Pakistan to be more involved in tackling extremist bases on its soil, as Afghanistan was hit by new attacks with at least 34 Taliban bodies found after one battle.

NATO was concerned by a spike in terror attacks but would not enter Pakistan to hunt down militants based there, the alliance's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also told reporters in Kabul.

Scheffer was visiting amid high tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the violence, including the bombing of the Indian embassy here this month that Kabul has directly blamed on its neighbour's intelligence agency.

"I cannot think of anyone who would consider it acceptable that many terrorists from all over the world gather in a certain area and create mischief and havoc there," Scheffer told reporters, in a reference to militant bases in Pakistan.

"The bottom line is that the present situation cannot be acceptable for anyone," Scheffer told reporters after talks with President Hamid Karzai.

Afghan and Western officials have long said that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have been able to regroup in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas after they were expelled from Afghanistan in 2001 in a US-led invasion.

Some accuse Islamabad of not doing enough to tackle them and criticise its efforts to negotiate peace deals.

Karzai reiterated his call for the focus of the international effort against extremism to be focused on militant hideouts across the border.

"The fight against terrorism is not in Afghanistan and we will not be secure and safe t (unless we) address the question of sanctuaries in Pakistan, the terrorist training camps there and the motivation that they are given there."

Scheffer said Pakistan had to be part of the solution to the problem.

"Our forces in Afghanistan are also the victims of the surge and uptick in violent incidents we have seen recently. But let us practise a regional approach and let us involve all the regional actors here," he said.

In new violence in Afghanistan Thursday, security forces were ambushed on the main road between Kabul and Kandahar and fought back in an hours-long battle.