Afghanistan 'still needs help'

AFGHANISTAN'S foreign backers should not see this Sunday's elections as a signal to disengage but rather to increase support until the country can stand on its own feet, Hamid Karzai, the president, said yesterday.

Speaking to government officials and tribal elders in the western city of Herat, Mr Karzai said it would be years before Afghanistan was able to go it alone and foreign troops and money were still needed.

"The international community should not immediately think Afghanistan's work has been done and it's over and let the Afghan people forge ahead with their work with their own resources," he said.

"We want the international community not only to continue their contributions to Afghanistan, particularly monetary ones, after the establishment of parliament, but also to increase them so the success reaches maturity."

The national assembly and provincial elections are the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability. They follow Mr Karzai's presidential election win last October.

The polls mark the formal end to a four-year process of international support that was launched in Bonn after United States-led forces overthrew the Taleban, but players are to meet in London in January to chart a new programme of assistance.

The UN said last week Afghanistan's political transition remained far from secure and long-term international commitment was needed.

Mr Karzai's comments came as US officials said the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, would step up pressure on NATO allies to shelve cutbacks on their troops' role in Afghanistan.

NATO is eventually supposed to take control of the international military mission in Afghanistan from the US early next year.