US air strikes in Pakistan's troubled tribal belt are

North West Frontier Province governor Owais Ghani said US air strikes in Pakistan's troubled tribal belt are "seriously undermining" public support for the new government and such actions could make it impossible for the government to keep struggling against militancy. Mr Ghani said that he would be "deeply concerned" about any increase in unilateral US airstrikes in tribal areas.

"This has a great backlash in the public sentiment, public opinion," he said. "It seriously undermines the much needed backing of the population. "Therefore it is very, very undesirable, and if it continues I think the pressure is already building up. If that goes beyond a certain point and people react, no government, political or military, will be able to continue. So I think that it's very important they understand the implications."

Earlier this year under Musharaf the Americans did have permission from Pakistan for limited air strikes against al-Qaeda targets.

But the new government elected in February asked them to stop, because these hits roused anger and led to revenge attacks. They are determined to stop a campaign of suicide bombings triggered largely by military strikes - both Pakistani and American - in the tribal areas.They also say that seven years of military action has only radicalised the tribes along the Afghan border, strengthened the Taleban and weakened state institutions. So they have turned to political negotiations and economic development to try to wrest back their authority, along with the selective use of force.

Mr Ghani repeated Pakistani complaints that it was in fact Nato and Afghan forces that were not pulling their weight in monitoring the long and mountainous frontier.He said that Pakistani check posts outnumbered those on the Afghan side by 10 to one, and complained that Afghanistan refused Pakistani offers to fence the border as it will hamper drug traffic. He also countered American and Afghan assertions that Taleban sanctuaries in the tribal areas were the main factor fuelling the Afghan insurgency.

He pointed to the "thriving opium trade, the weakness of social and political structures inside Afghanistan"and (Karzai's confinement to Presidential Palace in Kabul). "Today Afghanistan is a narco-state, that itself is a huge contributor of instability in Afghanistan."Mr Ghani said Afghanistan was "a failed state now, which means it's a long term problem."

"Placing all the blame at Pakistan's doorstep is wrong. "Stability between the two countries was linked, he argued, and there would be no peace in the tribal areas without peace in Afghanistan, which required talking to the Taleban.

"The bottom line is simple," he said, "that all Afghan power groups, irrespective of the length of their beards, are given due political space, they need that political share."