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Pakistan says it fears fallout from any surge next door

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan expressed fear yesterday that a big increase in the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan could push extremists across the border into its territory and called on the United States to consider that concern as it crafts a new war strategy.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan expressed fear yesterday that a big increase in the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan could push extremists across the border into its territory and called on the United States to consider that concern as it crafts a new war strategy.

The issue, raised by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during a meeting with visiting CIA Director Leon E. Panetta, could pose another headache for President Obama as he weighs military proposals to send 10,000 to 40,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year.

Gilani said the United States must fully share its plans for Afghanistan with Pakistan so that it can contribute to them, according to a statement from his office.

The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the CIA director's visit to the country. American security and government leaders have frequently visited Pakistan in recent weeks to urge it to do more against extremists on its side of the border blamed for violence inside Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials had expressed similar fears when Obama ordered 21,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan in the summer, but that surge did not lead to a flow of extremists into Pakistan.

New U.S. plans to close military outposts near the border and instead focus on larger population centers in Afghanistan also have sparked fears that extremists will find it easier to move between the two countries.

Pakistan's government is under domestic pressure not to be seen as simply taking orders from the United States and wants to give the impression that it has a say in any new Afghan policy. So Gilani's statement could have been directed at a local audience as much as to the Americans.

Pakistan's army launched an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan in mid-October - an effort welcomed by Washington.

It has retaken many towns in the lawless region, but many extremists are believed to have fled north and have retaliated with deadly bombings and clashes.

Four Pakistani soldiers, including a captain, were killed yesterday when extremists ambushed their convoy in the Shawal area of North Waziristan, local intelligence officials said.

Earlier in the day, two police officers were killed and four wounded when a remote-controlled bomb destroyed their vehicle in Peshawar, the city police chief, Liaquat Ali Khan, said. That attack occurred hours after a suicide bomber killed 19 people in the city, which is the gateway to the al-Qaeda and Taliban-inhabited border region.

Some fault Pakistani officials for flagging the offensive in South Waziristan several months before actually beginning it, which allowed the extremists to flee to safety and plan the wave of terror.

Also yesterday, a suspected U.S. missile strike killed eight extremists in northwestern Pakistan, officials said, the second such attack this week in an area believed to harbor insurgents who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region. American officials generally do not acknowledge the attacks, which are resented by many Pakistanis.

The drone fired two missiles at a compound being used by suspected Taliban fighters in a village near Mir Ali in North Waziristan, according to two intelligence officials.

The compound was destroyed and eight bodies and two wounded extremists were pulled from the rubble, two other intelligence officials said, adding that Taliban fighters were frequently seen at the targeted building.

The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.