WASHINGTON, Oct 4: The United States is urging Pakistan to participate in a major winter offensive against the Taliban and Al Qaeda militants and also to undertake joint military patrols of its border with Afghanistan along with US, Nato and Afghan troops.

At a recent video news conference at the Pentagon, a top Nato commander, Gen David McKiernan, told journalists in Washington, that a joint patrol could end cross-border raids and deny the Taliban militants their safe havens inside Pakistan.

“It is a very open, porous border, but the idea of a combined security effort there with Pakistani military, Frontier Corpsmen, Afghan border police with Isaf coordinated along the border I think is a very powerful idea and certainly I would like to pursue that in the future,” he said.

Gen McKiernan, a US general, leads Nato’s International Security Assistance Force. The majority of foreign troops in Afghanistan, including those from the US, come under his command.

The largest contributing nations are the US and Britain. They provide around 14,000 and 7,800 troops, respectively.

The US also has about 19,000 troops under Operation Enduring Freedom -- mostly in the east of Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan — that are not under Isaf’s command.

Meanwhile, the US media, quoting unnamed Pentagon sources, reported that US commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for a winter offensive against the Taliban in a bid to change the pace and direction of the war.

The reports said that the United States also expects Pakistan to support this offensive. While Pakistani troops will not participate in any action inside Afghanistan, they will be required to seal their border with Afghanistan to prevent Taliban militants from seeking refuge in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Pakistan will also be required to prevent militants hiding in Fata from crossing over to Afghanistan to help the Taliban.

The proposed joint patrol will also help achieve this target but it is not linked to the offensive, which has not yet been finalised.

Gen McKiernan says he needs at least 10,000 more troops to fight the militants, in addition to another US combat brigade that is scheduled to arrive in January.

While Washington has agreed in principal to send more troops to Afghanistan, their redeployment is linked to the situation in Iraq where the United States appears to have restored some peace.

Further improvement in Iraq, could allow the US to withdraw troops from there and redeploy them in Afghanistan.

Diplomatic sources in Washington told Dawn that the United States will continue to push for joint patrols even if the proposed winter offensive does not take place.

Afghanistan’s Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, who was recently in Washington told journalists that he had formally proposed the creation of a joint military force in his talks with senior officials in the US capital.

He said that such a force, if created, would fight militants on both sides of the border with Pakistan.

According to diplomatic sources, US officials discussed this idea with President Asif Ali Zardari as well during his recent visit to New York. Mr Zardari held several meetings with senior US leaders, including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

President Zardari, when asked at a press conference if US officials had discussed the proposal for joint patrols with him, said: “This is not a new idea. It has been discussed with us. We are willing to consider it but no decision yet.”