ISLAMABAD, 4 January 2007 — Afghan authorities made eleventh hour change in the tour progam of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s visit to Afghanistan. Instead of leaving for Kabul yesterday Aziz will leave for the Afghan capital at 8 a.m. today.

Aziz is visiting neighboring Afghanistan a week after his government announced it would fence and mine parts of the border to stop militants from crossing over, officials said yesterday.

Aziz will hold talks with President Hamid Karzai and other senior Afghan officials, Pakistan’s Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said without giving details.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the talks will focus “on all aspects of our bilateral relations” including security along the two countries’ border and the Pakistani proposal to secure parts of it.

“This visit of the prime minister will be used to exchange views on how we can address the common challenges we are facing,” Tasnim told reporters.

Relations have soured between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which are key US allies in its fight against terrorism.

Afghan and Western officials say militants operate from sanctuaries in Pakistan, but Islamabad insists it does all it can to stop them.

Tasnim denied as “nonsense” recent Western media reports that Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden may be hiding in Chitral, a rugged, isolated Pakistani town bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s plan to fence and mine parts of the rugged 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) frontier with Afghanistan was seen as an attempt to fend off criticism it does too little to stop Taleban and Al-Qaeda guerrillas from crossing the border. Tasnim said Pakistan’s Army will first identify border areas where infiltration is believed to be occurring before the government starts building fences or laying mines. She did not specify when the work would start.

Karzai has rejected the proposed Pakistani measure, saying it will only separate people without eliminating militant sanctuaries in Pakistan. But Tasnim said that the planned security measures are not aimed at impeding “legitimate travelers” between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Taleban-led insurgents have stepped up attacks in Afghanistan over the past year, triggering the worst violence since the hard-line regime was ousted with US help five years ago.