Japan adviser says Pakistan key for Afghan security

TOKYO- Stabilising Pakistan's economy and fighting poverty there are key to combating the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan, a special adviser to Japan's prime minister said ahead of a Pakistan donors' conference this month.

"It has become much, much more clearly recognised that unless you can manage the tribal areas of Pakistan from where a lot of the Taliban is gaining strength, you cannot deal with Afghan security," Sadako Ogata, the special envoy for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso to the two countries, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

Ogata, who was high commissioner for the U.N. refugee agency from 1991 to 2000, said while various factors such as religion and politics have encouraged a Taliban insurgency, those struggling from poverty are the most vulnerable.

"The poor people having very little resources would be easily recruited to radical action," the 81-year-old envoy said.

Nuclear-armed, and a hiding place for al Qaeda, Pakistan has become a foreign policy nightmare for the West.

Pakistan's leaders know al Qaeda is encouraging a Taliban insurgency in Pakistani tribal lands bordering Afghanistan as they seek to destabilise the Muslim nation of 170 million people.

Japan and the World Bank will host a Pakistan donors conference in Tokyo on April 17, which Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will be attending.