By Kamran Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Britain is to help Pakistan set up a national security authority and beef up the capacity of its law enforcing agencies to fight terrorism, a British government minister said on Tuesday.
Pakistan is fighting al Qaeda-linked militants who have carried out numerous attacks on its security forces, government and foreign targets in recent years.
At the same time, Britain is worried that radicalised young British men of Pakistani descent can come to Pakistan and make contact with militant groups, get training and develop plots.
British Home Secretary (interior minister) Alan Johnson told reporters after meeting his Pakistani counterpart, Rehman Malik, that Britain was keen to provide expertise to Pakistan to help combat terrorism.
"The Pakistan government is setting up a national counter-terrorism agency and the UK is ready to second people to that, ready to provide help and assistance," Johnson said.
Johnson did not say how many British people would be involved in the agency which he said would be like a research centre.
"The important point is to have a relationship where we can share intelligence between our two countries and that we will do very effectively," he said.
Johnson said extremists posed a threat to democracies.
"It doesn't matter whether those extremists are Christian or Catholic or Muslims or have no denomination at all, their activities cannot be tolerated in free democracies in they seek to destroy."
Malik said 50 million pounds of aid, announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in New York last month, would partly be used for training security forces.
Pakistan has achieved significant gains in an offensive against militants in parts of the northwest, which has eased Western fears about the stability of the nuclear-armed country.
But Western countries, especially those with soldiers in Afghanistan, want Pakistan to do more.
Al Qaeda and Taliban militants use bases in lawless northwestern Pakistani border to attack into Afghanistan.
The United States has been stepping up pressure on Pakistan to go after Afghan Taliban factions in the enclaves.
Johnson said the Pakistani-Afghan border was "central" and efforts were being made to bring stability to both sides.
"What we want to ensure is that a democratic peaceful Pakistan is not adversely affected by the security threat from Afghanistan. We are all here to ensure that the Afghan people are able to live in a secure democracy."
"That's the task and we'll pull out our forces when that has been achieved."
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth, who is also visiting Pakistan, met his Pakistani counterpart on Tuesday.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
