PAKISTAN PROTESTS
Rice said security and development were inextricably linked in Afghanistan, where the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) of some 53,000 troops is helping Afghan authorities fight a Taliban insurgency that has killed 11,000 people in the last two years alone.
The United States has a further 14,000 troops in Afghanistan outside ISAF whose mission is to pursue al Qaeda in the mountainous eastern region that borders Pakistan.
Pakistan lodged a strong protest with the United States on Wednesday over what it called an unprovoked and cowardly air strike by U.S. forces in Afghanistan that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers at a border post.
They died in the Mohmand region, opposite Afghanistan's Kunar province, late on Tuesday as U.S. coalition forces in Afghanistan battled militants attacking from Pakistan, a Pakistani security official said.
The Pentagon defended U.S. forces, saying initial indications pointed to a "legitimate strike" carried out in self-defence after they came under attack.
Rice, who will meet Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Paris, played down U.S. misgivings about the new Pakistani government's proposed peace pact with Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, based in South Waziristan.
U.S. and NATO commanders share doubts about the utility of negotiations with tribal leaders to try to quell Taliban and al Qaeda violence near the border.
She also made clear the United States is looking at how to help Pakistan grapple with its economic problems, which have been exacerbated by the rise in global fuel and food prices.
"They face a lot of economic challenges," she said. "We do want to look at what more we can do to help."
