**The G8 group of industrial countries has announced an economic initiative targeting the Afghan-Pakistan border.**The plan, made public at a meeting of G8 ministers in Canada, aims to help improve trade between the two countries and strengthen border infrastructure.
The plan is designed to boost development and employment.
Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said that stability in the Afghan-Pakistan region was “critical for global security”.
Correspondents say Taliban and al-Qaeda militants are hard to track down in the area, as the porous border allows them to move from one country to another unhindered.
It is hoped that improving cross-border trade will encourage economic development locally, possibly weakening the appeal of the Taliban to impoverished people there, analysts say.
Foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States are taking part in the two-day meeting in Gatineau, Quebec.
Other items on the agenda are taking steps to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, nuclear proliferation and the threat posed by extremist groups - as exemplified by Monday’s twin suicide bomb attacks on Moscow’s Metro system which left 38 dead.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Interfax news agency that militants operating on the Afghan-Pakistan border may have helped organize the Moscow attacks, Reuters news agency reported.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.