RPT-G8 urges Pakistan to help promote Afghan stability

Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:55am EDT

(Repeats to additional clients)

KYOTO, Japan, June 26 (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) called on Afghanistan's neighbours to help promote stability in the war-ruined country, singling out the need for dialogue between Kabul and Islamabad.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, both important U.S. allies in its campaign against al Qaeda and the Taliban, have long been strained by Afghan accusations that Taliban insurgents operate from sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of their border.

"We call on Afghanistan's neighbours to play a constructive role for the stability of Afghanistan," the ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States said in a statement after the first day of a meeting in Kyoto, Japan.

"We particularly encourage Afghanistan and Pakistan to continue their cooperation in a constructive and mutually beneficial manner through dialogue."

The call came amid a sharpening of rhetoric between Kabul and Islamabad this week.

On Thursday Pakistan rejected as "concocted" lies an Afghan accusation that Pakistan's main security agency was behind an attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai in April. [ID:nISL45517] (Reporting by John Chalmers; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

Comments (0)
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.