CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown flew to Afghanistan and Pakistan yesterday touting a new security strategy for the region as international alarm spreads over Taliban advances.

"This area and the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is the crucible for global terrorism," Brown told British and allied troops at a base in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, where Britain has played the leading role fighting the Taliban.

"It's important to recognize that if we do not take action and we do not fight back against the Taliban and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan, then people in Britain and in other countries represented here are less safe."