Powell in South Asia

Pakistan is stepping up efforts to crush Islamic militants in lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday, as the hunt for Osama bin Laden intensifies.

Mr Powell was in the Afghan capital for a brief visit to discuss the war on terror and Afghanistan's reconstruction and elections with President Hamid Karzai, who suggested there might be some slippage in the timetable for elections.

The US secretary of state, who later moved on to Pakistan, said the United States would stay committed to war-shattered Afghanistan, and said Washington would pledge $1 billion in aid at a donor's conference in Berlin this month.

"The action in Pakistan yesterday suggests that Pakistanis have picked up the pace and we hope they continue to do that," Mr Powell told a news conference, referring to a Pakistani attack on tribal and foreign fighters near the Afghan border on Tuesday.

Afghan and US officials have repeatedly complained that the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies have been able to escape to sanctuaries in Pakistan, despite Islamabad's status as a key ally in the US-led war on terror.