Afghanistan ? Pakistan and Afghanistan began key talks on border security Thursday, as a suspected Taliban suicide bomber killed two civilians and wounded 12 others in the militia’s former southern stronghold.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri met with his Afghan counterpart, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, and President Hamid Karzai in Kabul amid acrimony over alleged infiltration by Taliban militants causing havoc in the war-wracked nation’s south and east.

Relations between the two Muslim nations have been badly strained by Afghan contentions that Pakistan has been giving sanctuary to Taliban militants on its side of the border, contributing to an upsurge in the Afghan insurgency this year.

The insurgency has left close to 4,000 people dead, mostly militants killed in fighting between Afghan and Western forces.