By KUNA,
Sydney : Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith urged on Sunday newly-elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to focus on security issues, particularly on his country’s border with Afghanistan.
“We hope now that the Pakistani government and political system can start to focus on the very serious political and economic and social and strategic and security problems that Pakistan has, particularly abutting the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which bring very deleterious consequences for our troops in Afghanistan,” Smith told Sky News.
Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, won a landslide victory on Saturday to become Pakistan’s new president.
Australia has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Six Australian soldiers have been killed and more than 50 wounded in Afghanistan, including nine soldiers who were wounded in a Taliban ambush last week.