Turkey to host Afghanistan-Pakistan summit

ANKARA - Agence France-Presse

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The presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan will hold talks in Turkey on Tuesday and Wednesday in a bid to resolve a row after Kabul claimed an attack against its spy chief was planned in Pakistan, an official said, AFP has reported.

The assassination attempt on National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief Asadullah Khalid was carried out Thursday by an attacker who claimed to be a Taliban peace envoy but had a bomb hidden in his underwear.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai did not directly blame Pakistan for the attack but said the Taliban alone would not have been able to carry out the bombing and that "bigger hands were involved".

The Pakistani foreign ministry rejected the claim and said it was ready to help investigate what it called a criminal act.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and Karzai will discuss "means of strengthening bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially at the security level," a high-ranking Turkish diplomat told AFP Sunday.

The summit in Ankara will be the sixth in Turkey, a NATO member, since the regular consultation mechanism was established in 2007 to encourage both countries to cooperate against extremism.