Pakistan, Afghanistan & US agree to boost anti-terror battle

Defence officials from the three countries "agreed to further improve coordination and information sharing to enhance the effectiveness of counter terrorist operations," it said in a statement following talks in Islamabad.

They also "welcomed" the establishment of a counter-narcotics working group to "facilitate discussions" between the three countries, the military said.

Afghanistan produces almost 90 percent of the world's opium and Pakistan is often used as a transit country to smuggle drugs to the West.

Pakistan's director-general for military operations Major General Mohammad Yousaf, the commander of US troops in Afghanistan Lieutenant General David W. Barno, and Afghan national army chief of operations Lieutenant General Sher Mohammad Karimi led their delegations at the Tripartite Commission meeting.

The commission, formed some three years ago to settle border issues, will meet again in June 2005 in Kabul, the statement said.

The porous and ill-defined 2,400km Pakistan-Afghanistan border has been the source of enormous friction between the two countries.

Afghan officials say key commanders of the ousted Taliban militia have been allowed to freely cross the border while conducting guerrilla operations in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies the charges.