Britain needs Pakistan to fight al Qaeda - minister

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - British and Pakistani security agencies must enhance cooperation to fight al Qaeda and other militant groups, a British minister said in Islamabad on Monday.

"We both face a threat from al Qaeda and other terrorist and violent organisations," Interior Minister Jacqui Smith said, while inaugurating an art exhibition in the Pakistani capital.

"Threats to U.K. have had connections here. And threats to Pakistan have been tracked back to the U.K.," she added.

She said dialogue and cooperation between the two countries' security agencies was vital.

"That we face threats from the same groups and sometimes the same individuals underlines how important this is," she said.

Smith is the first senior member of the British government to visit Pakistan since the formation of a new government following the defeat of parties aligned to President Pervez Musharraf in an election on Feb. 18.

Arriving a week after the new cabinet was sworn, Smith said Britain was ready to increase its assistance for Pakistan to combat militancy.

She said the Department for International Development was doubling its spending in Pakistan to 480 million pounds ($954 million) for the period 2008-11.

Some of the funding was earmarked for development programmes in tribal areas on the Afghan border where al Qaeda and the Taliban militants have taken refuge.