Report urges U.S. focus on Pakistan in Afghan policy

By Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. policy on Afghanistan must focus on Pakistan, strengthening civilian government and ending the use of militant groups as an instrument of foreign policy, according to a report by a think tank with close ties to the Obama administration.

The Asia Society, whose chairman was Richard Holbrooke until he was appointed U.S. special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan in January, convened a task force of former government officials and academics to compile the report titled "Back from the Brink? A Strategy for Stabilizing Afghanistan-Pakistan."

The report, made public on Thursday, was provided to President Barack Obama's administration before he unveiled his new strategy on Afghanistan last week.

Task force co-chair Barnett Rubin said the United States and its allies had for too long focused on Afghanistan while allowing problems to fester in Pakistan, where the weak civilian government has little control over tribal areas that have become safe havens for al Qaeda.

"The regional center of gravity of the problem is not in Afghanistan," Rubin said. The report argues that there are no al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, but many in Pakistan where a variety of other militant groups have long thrived on covert backing from the military and intelligence apparatus.

"Because it faces India, which it sees as an enemy ... Pakistan has adopted formally the use of Jihadi groups as instruments of their foreign policy," Rubin said at a panel discussion in New York on the report.

"One of the aims of our regional diplomacy should be to use all the resources we can to encourage, cajole, force, persuade Pakistan to change its policy away from using those Jihadis."

Essential to that would be meeting Pakistan's legitimate security concerns, the report said, and easing tensions with India. Relations between the nuclear-armed rivals were strained further by November's attacks in Mumbai, which India says were conducted with the involvement of Pakistani state agencies.