KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO's secretary general said today that Pakistan must be involved in international attempts to end cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, calling for a regional approach to combatting Taliban violence.

With the Afghan president at his side, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said simply blaming Pakistan is not enough. He called for a regional approach to resolving the issue that would include Pakistan, which has defended its efforts to end militancy on its side.

"Only saying Pakistan is part of the problem or Pakistan is the problem might clear your conscience but will not help in solving the problem," de Hoop Scheffer said.

Karzai insisted that Afghanistan will not be secure unless militant sanctuaries in Pakistan are dealt with.

In the south — the Taliban insurgency's primary stronghold — militants attacked an Afghan military convoy in Shah Joy district of Zabul province, and dozens of militants were killed after the army called for assistance from the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan police, officials said.

Deputy provincial police chief Jailani Khan said the army called for assistance from the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan police, and that the three forces surrounded the insurgents, killing 35, at least two of whom were Arabs. Five Taliban militants were arrested, he said.

"There was no report of any casualties among the coalition and Afghan forces," Khan said.

Other Afghan officials gave different death tolls for the battle. Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said the bodies of at least 34 militants were counted on the field.

The Ministry of Interior, meanwhile, issued a statement saying 70 militants were killed, including two Arabs and four Chechens, and that four militants were arrested.

The varying figures could not be reconciled, and independent confirmation was impossible due to insecure nature of the area.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said at least 34 militants' bodies were counted on the field. The Ministry of Interior, meanwhile, issued a statement saying 70 militants were killed, including two Arabs and four Chechens, and that four militants were arrested.

The U.S.-led coalition, meanwhile, said it had no immediate reports of any activity in the area involving its troops.

Afghanistan faces intensifying militancy nearly seven years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the hard-line Islamic Taliban movement from power. More than 2,700 people — most of them militants — have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures.

Karzai and other Afghan officials have blamed the growing insurgency in part on Pakistan, saying the government there does not do enough to root out militants using its largely lawless tribal regions as sanctuaries and bases from which to launch attacks.