Impossible to separate Afghan, Pakistan Taliban: U.S.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Making a distinction between Pakistani Taliban and their Afghan allies is counterproductive and pressure on Taliban havens on both sides of the border is necessary, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.

Islamabad has mounted big offensives against Pakistani Taliban factions that are attacking the state but has resisted U.S. pressure to attack Afghan Taliban in border enclaves who do not attack in Pakistan but cross the border to fight U.S. troops.

Pakistan says it has its hands full with the Pakistani Taliban and cannot open too many fronts at the same time.

But analysts say Pakistan sees the Afghan Taliban as tools to counter the growing influence of old rival India in Afghanistan and as potential allies in Afghanistan when U.S. forces withdraw and, as many Pakistanis fear, leave the country in chaos.

"It is important to remember that the Pakistani Taliban operates in collusion with both the Taliban in Afghanistan and al Qaeda, so it is impossible to separate these groups," Gates said in a commentary in Pakistan's the News newspaper on Thursday.

"If history is any indication, safe havens for either Taliban on either side of the border will in the long-run lead to more lethal and more brazen attacks in both nations," said Gates, adding he would be visiting Pakistan but did not say when.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan and the United States have been allies for years but ties have been strained by U.S. calls for Pakistan to do more to stop militants crossing from its lawless ethnic Pashtun border lands to fight in Afghanistan.

"Maintaining a distinction between some violent extremist groups and others is counterproductive," Gates said.

"Only by pressuring all of these groups on both sides of the border will Afghanistan and Pakistan be able to rid themselves of this scourge for good," he said.

About 2,000 Pakistani soldiers have been killed battling the al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban behind numerous bomb attacks on the security forces and government and foreign targets.

The army has captured most insurgent bases in the rugged South Waziristan region on the Afghan border in an offensive launched in October but militant leaders have slipped away. Some are believed to have taken refuge with Afghan Taliban allies.

Gates, referring to a "trust deficit" between the United States and Pakistan, said the United States wanted to relinquish grievances of the past held by both sides.

The United States was committed to a stable, long-term, strategic partnership with a democratic Pakistan, he said.

The United States is Pakistan's biggest aid donor and has given about $15 billion (9.25 billion pound), including security assistance, since Pakistan signed up to the U.S.-led campaign against militancy after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

But many Pakistanis are deeply sceptical of the U.S. war on militancy, believing it is aimed at suppressing Muslims. Many Pakistanis also believe the United States wants to confiscate its nuclear weapons.

(Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Paul Tait)