NATO, Pakisatni, Afghan officials

Afghan, Nato and Pakistan officials opened the first of six intelligence-sharing centres to be dotted along the nations’ troubled border to boost anti-terrorism efforts.

The centre opened in key Afghan border town Torkham, and the others, will improve coordination between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the fight against extremists, they said.

Attacks by Taliban and other factions span the porous and rugged frontier with regular deadly suicide blasts and other bombings on both sides by extremist militants.

The violence has tested relations between the Islamic neighbours, each saying the other should do more to end the fundamentalist violence.

A key problem is the movement of militants across the border, which the new centres are expected to monitor.

After complaints from Afghanistan, Pakistan threatened last year to fence or mine part of the frontier.

Military commanders from both nations meet regularly with ISAF commanders in a tripartite commission and they work together in an intelligence-sharing hub opened in the Afghan capital Kabul.

This work would be enhanced by the new border centres, with three each due on either side of the border, said US General David Rodriguez, head of the US-led coalition force that helped to topple the Taliban.

Meanwhile, a bomb blew up a small electricity department building in southern Afghanistan’s troubled Helmand province yesterday, killing two people and wounding eight, police said.

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Related: Al Qaeda training ‘Western-looking’ fighters

CIA head Michael Hayden says Al Qaeda is training fighters who have a ‘Western’ appearance and would be more likely to be able to penetrate US borders to mount terrorist attacks.

In a rare public interview, General Hayden said the new recruits were being trained on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which he said was a safe haven that presented a "clear and present danger'’ to the West.

But he would not comment on media reports that the United States is escalating unilateral strikes against Al Qaeda members operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

"What I can tell you about is the situation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which presents a clear and present danger to Afghanistan, to Pakistan and to the West in general - and to the United States in particular," General Hayden said.

"They are bringing operatives into that region for training, operatives that wouldn’t attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dallas with you when you’re coming back from overseas.

"They look Western, [people] who will be able to come into this country without attracting the kind of attention that others might."

Concern about the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region is not isolated to the US.

Australia’s recently reappointed Australian Defence Force (ADF) Chief, Angus Houston, is calling for more diplomatic pressure to convince Pakistan to crack down on insurgents flowing into Afghanistan.

In an interview with the Fairfax newspaper group, Air Chief Marshal Houston says Australia must help engage Pakistan in practical and diplomatic ways to ensure that the Taliban is denied the freedom to move across the border into Afghanistan.

On the Iraq conflict, General Hayden admitted he was kept in the dark about the Iraqi Government’s plan to crack down on Shiite militiamen in the oil-rich southern city of Basra.

"It’s a very decisive moment, it’s a very challenging thing. I guess one would say that success is not guaranteed," General Hayden said.

And he conceded it could take years for the Iraqi forces to be able to function without the help of the Americans.

As for neighbouring Iran, General Hayden still believes that country is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, even though a recent intelligence report found that it had been suspended in 2003.

"Personally, yes. It’s hard for me to explain - and this is not court of law stuff, this is in terms of beyond all reasonable doubt," he said.

Iran still insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

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