Washington, Dec 1: By declaring that it is going to withdraw its troops from the Afghan border, Pakistan is trying to put pressure on Washington to persuade India not to mobilise its Army.

“This is high politics. The Pakistan Army knows the US cares that it remains engaged in the war against terror, so by declaring that it is going to withdraw, it is trying to put pressure on Washington to persuade New Delhi not to mobilise its troops,” said Christine Fair, a US expert on South Asia.

Marvin Weinbaum, a former adviser to the US State Department on South Asia who now works for a Washington think-tank, believed that the situation had not yet reached a point where Pakistan could begin withdrawing its troops from the Afghan border.

Kabul  - Afghan soldiers and US-led coalition forces killed 44 Taliban militants, including a commander, in three firefights in southern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces killed 33 militants in a clash in which airstrikes were called in Friday in the Nad Ali district of the southern province of Helmand, the US military said in a statement.

The combined forces were conducting a security patrol when they were engaged by militants firing small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, the statement said.

The joint forces returned fire "primarily with small-arms fire and limited close-air support," it said.

London  - Britain would look seriously at an expected request by future US president Barack Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in an interview published Friday.

The British government was waiting to see what the new US administration's strategy would be, Miliband told the Daily Telegraph.

"If there are requests for help - economic, social or military - we'll look at them hard. We've never been in blanket refusal ... But the British people don't want to feel it's always us who gets the nod; they want to know that others will do it," he said.

Britain currently has 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, where 128 of its soldiers have so far been killed.

Kabul, Nov. 28: The number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan has crossed the 100-figure mark, with the death of two Royal Marines in Helmand province.

The deaths of the Marines from 42 Commando brought to 101 the number of soldiers, Marines and other personnel killed as a result of hostile action. Their names had not been released last night.

Another 27 have died from non-combat injuries, including vehicle accidents. In Iraq 176 personnel have died, 136 as a result of hostile action.

Bamyan, Afghanistan  - Nowhere else in the eastern military command sector in Afghanistan do foreign troops patrol in baseball caps instead of helmets.

While the eastern epithet is more administrative than physical - the mountainous Bamyan province is about as central as you can get in the country - and despite the occasional roadside bomb, it's a pocket of relative peace in a country mired in conflict.

"Bamyan is still the most stable and secure province in Afghanistan," said Colonel Richard Hall, commander of the 140-soldier Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) from New Zealand that is deployed here. "This allows us to get on with our job instead of worrying overtly about the security situation."

Tokyo  - The Japanese government on Friday decided to begin a complete withdrawal of its military from Iraq by the end of December, media reports said.

The pullout order was to be announced later in the afternoon as Prime Minister Taro Aso and his cabinet agreed on the withdrawal at a morning meeting.

The government decided to end its airlift assistance because Iraq's political and security situation has improved, the Kyodo News Agency reported, citing government officials.