Bangalore: British Prime Minister David Cameron said, on Wednesday, that Pakistan must not become a base for militants and "promote the export of terror" across the globe, adding that their bilateral ties depended on that.
Cameron's remarks, made during a visit to Pakistan's arch rival India, are likely to please officials in Delhi, which has long accused Pakistan of backing attacks on Indian targets.
The two nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars, and been through a faltering peace process, which completely stalled after militant attacks in Mumbai in 2008 and now remains deadlocked.
"We should be very, very clear with Pakistan that we want to see a strong, stable and democratic Pakistan," Cameron told reporters after a speech in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.
"We cannot tolerate, in any sense, the idea that this country is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India, or whether to Afghanistan, or anywhere else in the world," he added.
Cameron's remarks come days after classified US military reports, published on the whistleblower WikiLeaks website, detailed US concern that Pakistan secretly aided Taliban militants while taking billions of dollars in US aid.
US ally Pakistan is seen as key to any negotiations to end the nine-year war in Afghanistan because of its influence over the Taliban. Analysts believe the leadership council of the Afghan Taliban is hiding in Pakistan.
Britain is home however to a large minority of people of Pakistani-origin and Cameron stressed the importance of the British-Pakistani relationship.
"It should be a relationship based on a very clear message: that it is not right to have any relationship with groups that are promoting terror," Cameron said.
"Democratic states that want to be part of the developed world cannot do that. The message to Pakistan from the US and the UK is very clear on that point," he said.
Britain has 9,500 troops fighting in Afghanistan and a rising death toll there is making the campaign increasingly unpopular.
However, Britain justifies the war by saying the majority of terrorist plots uncovered here have their roots in the lawless Afghan-Pakistan border areas.
