Higher commissioner Fauzia Nasreem's assertions follow allegations in leaked United States military reports that Pakistan's military intelligence agency has been guiding and supporting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Ms Nasreem's spirited defence of her Government's efforts to suppress Taliban insurgents came in a national security lecture at the University of Canberra yesterday.

Ms Nasreen highlighted the deployment of more than 140,000 Pakistani troops to ''clear and hold'' remote and inhospitable areas along Pakistan's 2612km-long border with Afghanistan

''So far, the price paid in terms of casualties is 30,475,'' she said.

''Out of which 8785 casualties have been suffered by the military and 21,672 by the civilians.''

Ms Nasreen drew a comparison between the 1582 combat deaths suffered by United States and other international forces in Afghanistan, and more than 2273 Pakistani military and security personnel killed in operations against insurgents in their own country.

''The financial cost has been roughly estimated at $43 billion,'' she said.

Her remarks came against the backdrop of intense controversy surrounding the publication by the WikiLeaks whistleblower network of a compendium of classified US military reports on the war in Afghanistan.

Numerous reports between 2004 and 2009 contain allegations that Pakistani military intelligence the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence has aided the Taliban.

The allegations have been strongly disputed by the Pakistani Government, which claims that anti-Pakistan bias of Afghan Government security officials skewed US military reporting.

For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.