US warns Pakistan of more attacks

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, (AFP) - Pakistan should strike back at "terrorism" or it will see more attacks like the one that killed ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, US Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff said Monday.

Extremists in Pakistan are a threat to that country as well as Afghanistan, he said when asked about Islamabad's peace talks with pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels which have raised concern in NATO and Kabul.

And it was important for the Pakistan government to see that "it ensures control and strikes back against terrorism," he told reporters at the US military base at Bagram 6O kilometres north of Kabul.

"Otherwise they're going to see more of the kind of tragedies that they saw when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated or some of the bombings we've seen in the last several months in Pakistan and here in Afghanistan as well," he said.

Benazir was killed in a December 27 attack that President Pervez Musharraf blamed on Al-Qaeda-linked warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who said Saturday "jihad" would continue in Afghanistan despite peace talks under way with Islamabad.

He denied any involvement in Bhutto's assassination.

NATO, which has 50,000 troops in Afghanistan, and Kabul have meanwhile urged Islamabad to take them into account when making deals with militants saying decreases in attacks in Pakistan correlated to rises in Afghanistan.

Chertoff was at the Bagram Air Base for a ceremony to award US citizenship to 44 troops from 12 countries serving in Washington's "war on terror" launched with the invasion that toppled the Taliban from power in Kabul in 2001.

The secretary said there had been progress in the fight against extremists.

However, determination was still needed to "push back against the enemy that is still trying to reestablish itself in some parts of Afghanistan, still threatening the young democracy we have here," he said.