Pakistan to do more against militants

By Andrew Gray

ST PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - Pakistan's military is increasingly willing to fight Islamist militants and accept U.S. help with that mission, a top U.S. commander said on Wednesday.

Navy Adm. William Fallon, head of the U.S. military's Central Command, said tackling militants in the tribal areas of western Pakistan was also essential to stabilize neighbouring Afghanistan.

Fallon said Pakistan's military had started to switch from its traditional focus on an external threat from eastern neighbour India to waging a counterinsurgency campaign against the internal threat from militants.

That shift had been driven by events of recent months, including the rise of militants in Pakistan's Swat Valley, the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Fallon said.

"They see they've got real problems internally, which are emanating from the west," Fallon told reporters in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he was hosting a meeting of military chiefs from the Gulf and Horn of Africa.

"My sense is there's an increased willingness to address these problems and we're going to try to help them," said Fallon, who is responsible for an area stretching from East Africa across the Middle East to central Asia.

Washington has given nuclear-armed Pakistan about $10 billion in aid since 2001, when Islamabad dropped support for the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and joined the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

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