Cheney unhurt after deadly blast at Afghan base

Talks focus on resurgent Taliban
In Kabul, Cheney was met by guards with guns drawn on the tarmac and was rushed by ground convoy to the presidential palace, where he and Karzai walked a long receiving line and past oriental rugs laid out on the wet, stone pavement.

Cheney and Karzai met privately for an hour and spoke about the “problems coming from Pakistan,” said an Afghan government official, a reference to cross-border infiltration by militants who launch attacks in Afghanistan.

“We understand now that the U.S. government realizes that in order to stop terrorism in Afghanistan and to stop terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, there must be a clear fight against terrorism in Pakistan,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Five years after their fundamentalist regime was toppled, Taliban-led militants have stepped up attacks and Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces are bracing for a fresh wave of violence in the spring.

There were 139 suicide bombings last year, a five-fold increase over 2005, and officials Maj. expect the number of suicide bombs to rise in 2007.

Al-Qaida believed to regroup
Cheney's visit came as Washington said al-Qaida and its Taliban allies were regrouping on Pakistan and Afghan soil.

The United States has 27,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, where it says defeating the Taliban is vital for its own security.

Last year was the bloodiest since the U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban’s Islamist government in 2001 for refusing to surrender Osama bin Laden in the wake of Sept. 11.

Bolstered by money from record opium crops and safe havens in Pakistan, the Taliban have vowed a spring offensive as the snows melt in coming weeks.

With the upsurge in fighting expected, Britain on Monday said it would send another 1,400 troops to Afghanistan.

Cheney earlier visited Pakistan, pressing President Pervez Musharraf to do more about the Taliban and other militants using its territory for shelter and training.

Citing U.S. officials, ABC News reported CIA deputy director Stephen Kappes had also shown Musharraf “compelling” CIA evidence of al-Qaida’s resurgence on Pakistani soil.

The CIA evidence was said to include surveillance satellite photos pinpointing the locations of several new al-Qaida camps in the Pakistani border province of Waziristan, ABC reported.

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