The official underscored that while security in Pakistan is "very volatile" in the wake of Bhutto's death in a suicide attack Thursday, NATO does not intend to change its military plan in Afghanistan despite Poland's move to boost troop numbers.

"It is clearly necessary that Pakistan should be part of the solution in Afghanistan and not part of the problem," the official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

"We all need to see, as NATO, the maximum, not only efforts, but also effectiveness in cutting off cross-border support to extremists in Afghanistan," he said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is trying to spread the rule of Afghanistan's weak central government and foster rebuilding but has struggled against a tough Taliban-led insurgency, particularly in the south.

The world's biggest producer of opium, Afghanistan lies on a volatile mountainous frontline with Pakistan, where drug runners and extremists like the Al-Qaeda network have trained, flourished and come to the aid of the Taliban.

"The situation in Pakistan is unstable, it is very volatile and it is impossible to predict where it will go," in the wake of the suicide attack, the NATO official said.

"But we ... would wish to see maximum efforts on the Pakistani side to continue in cooperation with us and the Afghans to stem that cross-border support in spite of the very difficult situation Pakistan is going through."

He said that a so-called "tripartite commission" of ISAF, Afghan and Pakistani military officials continued to meet.

"Military to military cooperation is fine. It has not diminished," he said.

Poland announced Friday that it would boost its forces in Afghanistan by 400 troops to a total of 1,600 as a result of Bhutto's slaying.

"The destabilisation of the situation in Pakistan and the danger that this instability will expand in the region and to Afghanistan has forced us to reinforce our military contingent," Defence Minister Bogdan Klich told Poland's TVN24 television channel.

But the NATO official said: "There is no discussion within NATO of making fundamental changes to force-size, structure or mandate as a result of this."

Even last month, when Bhutto was alive but under house arrest, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende expressed concern about deteriorating security.

"We are worried about people that come from Pakistan to Afghanistan, with all the difficulties. It is important to work together and therefore you need stability," said Balkenende, whose country has troops deployed to the south.

"The risk now in Pakistan is that there is no stability," he said.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has also urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to launch a crackdown beyond the border area in the city of Quetta, seen as a key rear-base for the Taliban.

Musharraf joined the US-led "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001 attacks -- and has launched military operations in the tribal areas which have left 1,000 soldiers and many more rebels dead, according to the army.

Pakistan still has around 90,000 troops there, but they have failed to quell the unrest in a belt where tribesmen do not even pay lip-service to the control of the government in far-away Islamabad.

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