ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan on Friday rejected allegations by America's spy chief that it is a refuge for terrorist leaders and demanded that his intelligence networks share information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda figures.
The statements Thursday by U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte that Pakistan is a haven for al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists are "incorrect," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said.
"In breaking the back of al Qaeda, Pakistan has done more than any other country in the world," ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. "The proper way to do this would be to share the intelligence with us."
Negroponte said that despite Pakistan's vital role in the war on terrorism, leaders of both al Qaeda and Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban militia are sheltering in its lawless frontier areas, largely beyond reach of U.S. or Pakistani fighters.
NATO and the Afghan government also say Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas are launching attacks on their forces in Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan. Violence rose sharply in Afghanistan in 2006, with fighting killing about 4,000 people in what was the deadliest year since the U.S.-led coalition swept the Taliban from power in 2001.
In his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Negroponte said that "eliminating the safe haven that the Taliban and other extremists have found in Pakistan's tribal areas is not sufficient to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, but it is necessary."
U.S. officials have previously said they believe bin Laden and other top terrorist commanders are taking refuge in the region, likely on the Pakistani side of the border. Pakistan has repeatedly rejected such claims.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, the top civilian security official in Pakistan, told The Associated Press that the U.S. intelligence agencies had not shared any "specific intelligence with Pakistan on the whereabouts of al Qaeda or the Taliban."
"We always act swiftly whenever any intelligence is shared with us. There are no al Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan," he said.
But in a sign that insurgents are crossing from Pakistan to fight in Afghanistan, the bodies of 25 militants killed in a fierce battle with NATO were repatriated Friday to their tribal villages in Pakistan, where Taliban activists urged mass attendance at their funerals, residents said.
NATO on Thursday reported killing or wounding 130 suspected Taliban who had crossed from Pakistan to mount attacks in eastern Afghanistan. Pakistan's army also said it attacked militant supply trucks on its side of the border in Pakistan's tense North Waziristan region.
Aslam acknowledged that "there may be al Qaeda elements" in Pakistan. But she said their presence was just like "in the Middle East or other world countries."
Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher paid tribute to Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts and said more action was needed on both sides of the border.
"There continues to be a high rate of cross-border activity," he told reporters after meeting with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. "I'm not just saying Pakistan hasn't succeeded yet, but we have not succeeded yet ourselves in Afghanistan. There's more effort required of all of us."
Pakistan became a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism after it severed support for the Taliban militia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
