Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, has offered to second British personnel to a new Pakistani national counter-terrorism agency as part of efforts to combat al-Qaeda.

Mr Johnson announced the offer today after meeting Rehman Malik, his Pakistani counterpart, on the final leg of a three-day visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan with Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary.

“The Pakistan government is setting up a national counter-terrorism agency and the UK is ready to second people to that, ready to provide help and assistance,” Mr Johnson told reporters. “The important point is to have a relationship where we can share intelligence between our two countries and that we will do very effectively.”

Britain and other Western allies have long urged Pakistan to create a national agency to co-ordinate between its army, intelligence services and police, all of which handle militancy at the moment, sometimes at cross purposes.

Britain has also been pressing Pakistan for years to share more intelligence, and better co-ordinate counter-terrorist operations, especially in regard to British citizens of Pakistani origin, or Pakistani citizens who regularly visit Britain.

British intelligence estimates Pakistan is the source of three-quarters of the most serious terrorist plots in Britain — and that a handful of British militants are fighting alongside the Taleban in Afghanistan, often entering through northern Pakistan.

Mr Johnson did not say how many British personnel would be seconded, from where, or when, to Pakistan’s new agency, which has been set up already, but is not fully operational.

But Bron Madson, his press secretary, told The Times that it would likely be only a “couple of people” and it was too early to say from which parts of the British Government they would come.

The new agency would not be an operational unit, she said, but more of a research wing collating and analysing intelligence.

Mr Johnson also promised Pakistani leaders that the UK Borders Agency (UKBA), which he oversees, would clear a huge backlog of Pakistani applications for British visas and reduce processing time to 15 working days.

Asif Ali Zardari, the President, and Yousaf Raza Gilani, the Prime Minister, both asked Mr Johnson to review the visa regime during their meetings with him on Monday.

The backlog of 14,000 applications that has built up since the UKBA moved its Pakistan operations to Abu Dhabi last year means that many students were unable to begin courses at British universities last week.

Pakistan’s media has been filled with reports of angry visa applicants complaining of long delays, unfair refusals and of being unable to retrieve their passports for up to two months during the application process.

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