Australia asks Zardari to focus on terrorism

MELBOURNE: Australia today welcomed the "peaceful outcome of democratic and parliamentary process" in Pakistan, which elected Asif Ali Zardari as the President, and asked him to curb al-Qaeda and Taliban-led insurgency in areas bordering Afghanistan.

"That's good in the sense, the Pakistani democratic and parliamentary process have resolved that without a need for intervention from the military so we welcome that," the Sky News quoted Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith as saying. Zardari, the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, yesterday won a landslide victory to become Pakistan's new president.

"We hope now that the Islamabad government and political system can start to focus on the very serious political, economic, social, strategic and security problems that it has, particularly abutting the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which bring very deleterious consequences for our troops in Kabul," Smith told the Sky News.
Australia has about 1,000 troops in Pakistan's neighbour Afghanistan. The US has also been pressing Pakistan hard to eradicate Taliban and al-Qaeda havens near its border with Afghanistan.