KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 4 � Pakistan�s prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, said today that three million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan must be resettled in their native country so that their refugee camps can no longer be used as safe havens by insurgents.

The statement by Mr. Aziz followed a meeting with President Hamid Karzai in the Afghan capital. It is the first time Pakistan has been so blunt in saying that the refugees, whom it has hosted for over 20 years since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, should leave.

Mr. Aziz met with Mr. Karzai in an effort to smooth relations between the two neighbors, relations that have deteriorated steadily over the last year. After two hours, the two leaders emerged with no agreement on the main areas of contention, namely Pakistan�s decision to fence and mine the border and Afghanistan�s plan to convene two tribal gatherings, or jirgas, of national representatives from both countries to foster peace between the two countries.

Shortly before the meeting, Pakistan announced it would go ahead with a plan to fence and mine the long mountainous border between the two countries, a project that Afghanistan has repeatedly rejected as a diversion from the real problem of terrorism, which it says is being incubated in Pakistan. It has also dragged its feet on organizing the tribal gatherings, promising only to form a commission to work on the idea.

�Unfortunately, the gulf in relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan is getting wider, and it is not getting narrower,� Mr. Karzai said after their meeting. �The Afghan people want to remove all those obstacles which create the divide in our relations. Those obstacles are created by terrorist activities which are hindering Afghanistan�s reconstruction and making our schools burn,� he said.

�Security will not come to Afghanistan unless together we and Pakistan, with good and friendly relations, become tough in the fight against terrorism,� he said. He said he wanted to hold the tribal jirgas so people could speak their minds.

Mr. Aziz said the two leaders made an important decision to work on resettling three million Afghan refugees back in Afghanistan and remove the sanctuary that refugee camps provide to insurgents. �Refugee camps on our side of the border sometimes are safe havens for elements who are from Afghanistan and take safe haven there after conducting activities,� he said.

He also defended Pakistan�s plan to fence and mine the border as one way to restrict the movement of people who represent a threat to security. �We believe that selective fencing and mining can help achieve the objective,� he said, adding that the fence and mines would not prevent the ordinary crossing of local tribes living in the area.