Afghan leader presses Blair for more troops as governor routed

Friday February 1, 8:56 PM AFP

Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai has reiterated pleas for more foreign security forces in Afghanistan after his handpicked governor in an eastern province was routed in heavy tribal fighting.

Karzai urged a wider role for international peacekeeping troops during talks in London but Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain's military involvement had limits.

While assuring Karzai there would be a "long-term" international commitment, Blair did not promise to extend Britain's presence in Afghanistan where bloody tribal infighting erupted this week.

Karzai's choice for governor of eastern Paktia province, Pashtun tribal chief Padsha Khan, was forced into a humiliating retreat Thursday after two days of heavy fighting against rival warlord Saif Ullah.

The clashes around Gardez, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Kabul, left around 50 people dead and highlighted the frailty of the UN-backed interim government set up following the collapse of the Taliban regime in December.

The fighting started Wednesday when Ullah, who took control of the local tribal council after the Taliban evacuated, ordered his men to open fire as Khan's forces tried to raise the new national flag over the governor's mansion.

The rundown town of about 50,000 people remained tense Friday following the retreat of Khan's troops from the surrounding hilltops. Khan himself appeared furious at his commanders and has not conceded defeat.

Ullah is loyal to pre-Taliban president Burhanuddin Rabbani, the figurehead of the Northern Alliance which helped oust the Taliban from power, while Khan is loyal to Karzai's royalist faction and ex-king Mohammed Zahir Shah.

Zahir Shah has appealed for an end to factional fighting and called on Afghan's not to destroy the country's chances of reconstruction.

"We are very worried about reports of clashes in any part of the country. Our brothers should avoid confrontation and think about the country's reconstruction," a senior aide to the king, Abdul Wali, said in Rome Thursday.

Interim Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, speaking to reporters in New York Thursday, described the battle as "a single unfortunate incident".

But he conceded it was a telling illustration of the problems facing Afghanistan as it struggles to emerge from 23 years of foreign invasion and civil war, with "at least" 700,000 people still bearing arms.

The demobilisation and reintegration of armed people into a new Afghan national army or police force should be considered as "part of a package" for rural reconstruction, he said.

Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam Friday denied reports that in talks in New Delhi this week with Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes he sought Indian military hardware to help strengthen his country's defences.

Bin Laden made another appearance in the international media Thursday, when CNN aired an interview he gave to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station in October.

"The US government will lead the American people -- and the West in general -- into an unbearable hell and a choking life," bin Laden said in what could be his last interview.

It is not known whether the Saudi-born dissident survived the US bombing of al-Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan.

"We will work to continue this battle, God permitting, until victory or until we meet God," bin Laden said.