Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and NATO should share intelligence with Pakistan to help “sanitize” the border with Afghanistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.

The “flow of weapons, drugs, illicit money and militants” must be prevented along the 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) frontier, Gilani told a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Islamabad yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The Obama administration should take Pakistan into its confidence over its revised security policy for Afghanistan, Gilani said. President Barack Obama is deciding whether to send as many as 40,000 additional soldiers to the country.

Pakistan’s army is engaged in its biggest offensive against pro-Taliban militants in the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visited Islamabad last month, this week praised the government’s “forceful response” to the Taliban.

Improved intelligence cooperation will help Pakistan enforce security along the border, APP cited Gilani as telling the delegation headed by John Tierney, a Massachusetts Democrat in the House of Representatives.

The U.S. should discuss its plans for Afghanistan with the government in Islamabad to ensure a military buildup doesn’t have an adverse effect on Pakistani regions where militants are operating, Gilani said without elaborating.

Military Supplies

Pakistan needs military supplies to help it bring the army’s offensive to a successful conclusion, the prime minister said. The government has called on the U.S. to provide technology so it is able to use remote-controlled drone aircraft against militant bases.

The country has received about $7.6 billion in military reimbursements from the U.S. since 2001 for counterterrorism.

Militants have retaliated for the South Waziristan offensive by staging suicide bombings and attacks that have killed more than 300 people since mid-October in towns and cities, including Islamabad. They are mounting a “desperate” guerrilla war after suffering defeats in the tribal area, Gilani said two days ago.

The bombings and raids are a “direct attack on the authority of the Pakistani government,” Clinton said in a Nov. 9 interview with the PBS network.

At least eight members of the security forces were killed yesterday when a mine exploded in Mohmand near the Afghan border. A suicide bombing at a market in Charsadda in North West Frontier Province two days ago killed 40 people and 17 others were killed in two separate bombings Nov. 8 and 9 in Peshawar, the provincial capital.

Terrorists Killed

The army’s operation in South Waziristan is targeting the Tehreek-e-Taliban, the group Pakistan blames for 80 percent of terrorist attacks on its territory.

Pakistan’s army said 22 terrorists were killed in South Waziristan in the last 24 hours and five soldiers also died, while eight were injured.

“Troops advanced to Langar Khel and face intense engagement by militants,” the military said in a statement on its Web site today. The town of Langar Khel is a Taliban stronghold.

Security forces are consolidating positions south of Makeen and an operation is also under way to secure the town of Darra Alghad, according to the statement.

While the government says it’s aiming to complete the offensive before winter begins in the tribal region next month, the Taliban said earlier this month it is withdrawing its forces deliberately in order to draw soldiers into the region and engage them in a long war.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anwar Shakir at ashakir1@bloomberg.net; Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 12, 2009 06:54 EST