British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived in Afghanistan on Monday for talks with President Hamid Karzai on a new strategy to fight the "crucible of terrorism" in the border district with Pakistan.

Brown said the new approach, due to be officially unveiled on Wednesday, would treat Afghanistan and Pakistan together as "different but complimentary".

He visited British troops at Camp Bastion in the southern province of Helmand, and the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, before meeting the head of the Western-backed Afghan government in Kabul, said an AFP reporter.