Helmand province, Afghanistan  ­ The desert landscape shudders to explosions of mortar and rocket shells, small arms fire and grenade blasts as the Estonian troops stage final battle rehearsals before the real thing.

By mid-morning the mercury rises to 40 degrees Celsius and the men are caked with dust and sweat as they manoeuvre and shoot, again and again.

Kabul  - A NATO soldier died and two others were wounded in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the military said on Monday.

Washington, May 25: Despite differences with Islamabad over how talks with the representatives of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) should proceed, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that Washington does not believe that Islamabad wants to exacerbate the situation along tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Admitting that there were also differences between the US and Britain over Pakistan’s efforts to seek a negotiated settlement to insurgency in FATA, Rice said: “I don’t believe that the Pakistani Government wants to create circumstances in which terrorists can get breathing space and surely Pakistan does not want to make it Afghanistan’s problem.”

She said the differences over FATA talks would not jeopardise US relations with Pakistan.