ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates paid a brief weekend visit to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to request more efforts at controlling Taliban militants.
Gates left a security conference in Munich, Germany, for the visit to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, which lasted about an hour, the New York Times reported Monday.
"If we weren't concerned about what was happening along the border, I wouldn't be here," Gates said.
Aides to Gates said the two men talked about NATO plans to launch a spring offensive against the Taliban, and Musharraf acknowledged difficulties in enforcing a peace deal with tribal militias in North Waziristan, a porous area straddling the border with Afghanistan.
After the meeting, Gates said he would return to Washington, and that he had been reassured Pakistan would work harder at curtailing insurgents crossing into and out of Afghanistan, the report said.
