“… A Pakistan military spokesman confirmed [military] training had been agreed to by both sides, as the US Senate confirmed General David Petraeus as the new commander of US and NATO troops fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.  A top Islamabad security official also said this week that Pakistan mayextradite top Taliban commander Mullah Baradar as part of efforts to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai reach a settlement with the Taliban.  Relations between Pakistan and the Western-backed central Afghan government have been tense for years, with Mr Karzai accusing Pakistan security forces of backing the Taliban insurgency as insurance against Indian influence in Afghanistan.  But with US President Barack Obama signalling a military withdrawal in July next year, Pakistan is increasingly viewed by Kabul as key to ending the conflict.  The US is believed to support a negotiated settlement with the Taliban as a means to end its faltering war effort.  But at his Senate confirmation hearing in Washington, General Petraeus, the mastermind of the US military’s ‘counterinsurgency’ strategy in Iraq , warned that NATO forces faced ‘tough fighting’ ahead.  He also told senators he would not be surprised if elements of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency still had links with Afghan Taliban commanders and otherextremist groups”

“What we have always had to figure out with Pakistan centre is, are they working
with the Taliban to support the Taliban or to recruit sources in the Taliban,”
he said.

A Pakistan military spokesman told The Australian the plan to train Afghan
officers had been under discussion for some time and would involve a small group
in the first instance who would receive training in the frontier outpost of
Peshawar, on the edge of Pakistan’s lawless border area.

“I would think it will be quite helpful for the future because Afghanistan and
Pakistan share the border and have to remain interdependent. It is essential
that each side should have some understanding of the other,” the spokesman said.

Mr Karzai’s national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta confirmed the plan,
saying: “This is meant to demonstrate confidence to Pakistan, in the hope of
encouraging them to begin a serious consultation and conversation with us on the
issue of (the) Taliban.”

General Petraeus will replace Stanley McChrystal, who was forced to resign last
week over impolitic comments in a Rolling Stone magazine profile”

By Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent for The Australian, July 2

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