[update 16:07 BST]
Asif Ali Zardari's pulls out of press conference in Islamabad after Brown calls country 'terror crucible'.
Gordon Brown this morning made it clear he is following the US game plan - Afghanistan and Pakistan are the 'crucible of terrorism' he tells us, as the UK government announces more troops for the Afghan disaster. Pakistan is desperately trying to block a drive by the Taliban in the Swat valley towards the Afghan border. The US has demanded this offensive. Thousands of ordinary people are fleeing the Malakand division. Clinton says she couldn't 'even contemplate' a situation where Pakistan's nuclear weapons are at risk. Gordon Brown sees no contradiction in appealing to Pakistan to step up its civil war in the name of the war on terror, while detaining its students on false terrorism charges here in the UK.
Asif Ali Zardari's pulls out of press conference in Islamabad after Brown calls country 'terror crucible'.
Gordon Brown this morning made it clear he is following the US game plan - Afghanistan and Pakistan are the 'crucible of terrorism' he tells us, as the UK government announces more troops for the Afghan disaster. Pakistan is desperately trying to block a drive by the Taliban in the Swat valley towards the Afghan border. The US has demanded this offensive. Thousands of ordinary people are fleeing the Malakand division. Clinton says she couldn't 'even contemplate' a situation where Pakistan's nuclear weapons are at risk. Gordon Brown sees no contradiction in appealing to Pakistan to step up its civil war in the name of the war on terror, while detaining its students on false terrorism charges here in the UK.
The Swat Taliban remain defiant. Overnight the militants seized control of a telephone exchange in Bahrain, a village in the upper Swat valley.
"The more they carry out operations the more we will expand across Pakistan," said spokesman Muslim Khan. "God willing, one day we will touch its last boundary."
Brigadier Mehmood Shah, a Peshawar-based analyst, said Pakistan was finally waking up to the seriousness of the Taliban threat.
"The Taliban have exposed their real intention – not the implementation of Sharia law, but to seize power in Pakistan. It is now clear that al-Qaida is driving these people, and the government has realised it can't [defeat] them with a small effort," he said.
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