Afghanistan News October 23, 2003

October 23, 2003

Karzai: Terror Lingers in Afghanistan
By BURT HERMAN, AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai acknowledged Wednesday that Afghans still "live in fear" nearly two years after the ouster of the Taliban regime, and alleged some forces within the government try to take advantage of the instability. Speaking at a security conference in the capital Kabul that brought together regional governors and commanders, Karzai said the country remains plagued by the "evil of terrorism" and factional infighting.

"People are not happy with the security situation," he told an audience that also included officers from the NATO-led peacekeeping force and the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition. "People still live in fear."

Karzai said some government officials "create problems for the people" and called on the assembled leaders to "make sure that the people are happy with government officials." Journalists were only allowed to listen to Karzai's opening remarks, and it wasn't known if he went on to chastise the regional commanders whose long-standing rivalries have often led to bloodshed across the country.

Earlier this month, some of the worst factional fighting broke out near the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, with one side claiming at least 60 had been killed. A cease-fire was negotiated with the help of Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, and some 300 Kabul police have also been sent to the city to patrol checkpoints.

On Wednesday, Jalali said he welcomed the expansion of the NATO-led peacekeeping troops across the country, following a U.N. Security Council decision to extend their mandate beyond Kabul, and hoped it would improve overall security.

Karzai noted some positive steps taken by his administration, saying the central government has established better contact with regional officials and that salaries of government officials were being paid on time — at least in some provinces. In the last 18 months, "the government has made successful achievements ... but it still faces failures and problems," he said.

Pakistan Begins Fortifying Afghan Border
By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan has started fortifying its border with Afghanistan with fences and checkpoints to prevent al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives from sneaking into the country, the military spokesman said Wednesday. New light towers and checkpoints were being erected along the barren western frontier around the town of Chaman, a main border crossing, about 470 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, said Gen. Shaukat Sultan.

The traffic back and forth across the sparsely inhabited border region has been a source of contention between Pakistan and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai, which has accused Pakistan of sheltering fighters of the ousted Taliban regime or their al-Qaid allies.

Pakistan denies knowingly giving safe haven to Afghan insurgents. But the border area is the home of deeply conservative tribes who share the culture and tribal view of Islam imposed by the Taliban during their five-year rule of Afghanistan. Pakistan — a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror — says it is doing whatever possible to stop rebels from using its soil against Afghanistan's fledging government.

Afghanistan's state-run television Tuesday reported that Pakistan was constructing a 25-mile-long wall along the Afghan border without seeking permission from Karzai's government. Sultan said the report was inaccurate, and Pakistan was constructing no such wall.

"We are only fencing our border to fight terrorism," he told The Associated Press. Pakistan did not need permission from any country to take measures safeguarding its border, he added. Chaman is across the border from Spinboldak, an Afghan town where suspected Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents have often targeted U.S.-led coalition forces.

O'Brien assures Afghanistan help in anti-nacotics efforts
KABUL (AFP) - Britain has promised to continue to help war-ravaged Afghanistan in its reconstruction process and efforts towards eradication of narcotics production. "The British government assures this country of our continuing commitments to ensure the reconstruction of Afghanistan," minister for trade, investment and foreign affairs Mike O'Brien said at a press conference.

Earlier, O'Brien held talks with Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. "We are encouraging the whole process of eradication of narcotics and also we need to ensure that we create a livelihood for the farmers who are growing this crop (poppy)," O'Brien said Wednesday.

London is leading drug eradication efforts in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of narcotics, and is providing 200 million pounds (320 million dollars) over five years in the fight against opium production.

Britain is also contributing 70 million pounds (112 million dollars) over the next three years for law enforcement measures and alternativee livelihoods. Britain has so far trained more than 100 Afghan police officers in counter-narcotics law enforcement and next month is seconding a special adviser to the interior ministry.

Moderates in Taliban Are Given a Break
By Paul Watson, LA Times, 10/22/03
Afghanistan, with U.S. help, has begun talks aimed at including some militia members in the rebuilding process and upcoming elections.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Almost two years after overthrowing the Taliban regime, the U.S. and its Afghan allies are taking steps toward negotiating with more moderate leaders of the hard-line Islamic militia in an effort to involve them in the nation's rebuilding process and upcoming elections.

In one key move, the U.S. military granted limited release to former Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel this month to allow him to pursue talks with other Taliban officials, Afghan officials confirmed Tuesday. Mutawakel turned himself in to U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan in February 2002; Afghan government sources said he was held at the U.S. military's Bagram air base, north of Kabul, the capital.

"He has been shifted to another location, but I would not term his release as total freedom yet," Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad said in an interview here. "He's under supervision, and we will have to wait and see."

With U.S. assistance, President Hamid Karzai's government is responding to requests from former Taliban members to open negotiations with some of the movement's more moderate leaders, Samad added.

"It is definitely not an attempt to talk to the Taliban as we have known them, as a militant terrorist group," Samad said. "There are no attempts to talk to people who have been involved in the past with terrorism, or alleged major violations in this country, and those who are still waging war."

That includes fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, whom other Taliban members would have to denounce before being allowed to participate in national elections scheduled for June, Samad said.

Although Samad stressed that the government was only considering talks "with individuals who can contribute to peace and reconstruction," a report by state-run Radio Afghanistan on Monday quoted a top Karzai aide as saying talks were already underway.

Omar Daudzay said that a number of governors and other government officials have begun talks with the Taliban and that the discussions were continuing, the report said. "We are in favor of negotiating with moderate Taliban," Khalid Pushtun, a spokesman for Kandahar Gov. Yusuf Pashtun, said in a phone interview.

"It is absolutely supported by the people of Afghanistan and by the transitional government of Afghanistan," Pushtun added. "We will try to encourage them to participate in the elections. They are citizens of Afghanistan, and we have similar rights that all Afghan people have."

Taliban members and supporters interviewed by the Los Angeles Times in eastern Afghanistan and in Pakistan this summer said relatively moderate leaders were interested in contesting the elections. Some also said discussions were underway to find a replacement for Omar, who remained at large and was believed to still be in Afghanistan.

Taliban remnants have been launching increasingly bold assaults in recent months, raiding police stations, killing aid workers and confronting U.S. troops. Fighting killed at least four U.S. troops last month. Many of the attacks have taken place in the south and east, near the Pakistani border.

The resurgent Taliban has been benefiting from a sense of alienation among Afghanistan's ethnic Pushtun majority, many of whom feel cheated by promises of reconstruction. Violence in the Pushtun heartland of eastern and southern Afghanistan has led foreign aid agencies to largely shun the area.

The decision to negotiate with Taliban leaders could boost Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan's military intelligence helped form and bring the Taliban to power in the 1990s. During the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and its Al Qaeda network allies in late 2001, Pakistani officials floated Mutawakel's name as a leading moderate who should be part of a postwar interim government.

But leaders of the Northern Alliance, the U.S.-allied force that helped topple the Taliban, refused to give their enemies a place in the new government. This year, Northern Alliance supporters turned violent when Karzai asked Afghans to distinguish between what he called good and bad Taliban, but so far, news of Mutawakel's release hasn't sparked protests.

Former Northern Alliance military commanders contacted Tuesday, including Afghan army Chief of Staff Bismillah Khan, declined to comment.

Aides and relatives of Mutawakel first reported that he had been released Oct. 6 and said he had been moved to Kandahar, his home city and once a Taliban stronghold where support for the movement was still strong. Karzai and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad both denied it at the time.

Although the U.S. military doesn't disclose the names of alleged Taliban members and other prisoners it holds in Afghanistan, or at its base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Mutawakel is believed to be the highest-ranking Taliban official to have been taken into U.S. custody.

Afghan Govt Denies Report Of Talks With Former Taliban
AP 10/22/2003
KABUL -The Afghan government denied Wednesday that it has entered into talks with former Taliban members, including the ex-foreign minister who is being held by the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition.

President Hamid Karzai's office has received a "number of individual contacts" from some ex-Taliban, including former Foreign Minister Abdul Wakil Mutawakil, "expressing interest and readiness to side with the government and offering assistance."

But the president's office said in a statement that it hasn't responded to them. "The government of Afghanistan has not entered into any form of discussion or negotiation with members of the former Taliban movement," the president's office said. Recent news reports suggested that Mutawakil had been released and that Karzai's government had expressed interest in speaking to him.

Mutawakil is seen as a moderate member of the Taliban, the extremist Islamic movement that ruled most of Afghanistan before U.S. forces chased them from power after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He could potentially serve as a mediator between the government and remaining fugitive Taliban who have mounted increasing attacks against foreign troops.

But the president's office said Wednesday that the government hasn't authorized his release and he remains in coalition custody. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said the coalition "can't confirm" that Mutawakil had been released.

'New Species' of Terrorist Threatens Kabul
Kabul Facing Threat From 'New Species' of Terrorist, Says Head of Peacekeeping Force The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan Oct. 22 — A "new species" of well-trained terrorist has infiltrated Afghanistan's capital, posing an increasing threat to the already shaky security situation in the country, the head of an international peacekeeping force said.

According to intelligence reports, the terrorists are Arab citizens of Saudi Arabia, Yemen or come from the Russian republic of Chechnya, Lt. Gen. Goetz Gliemeroth, commander of the 5,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, said on Tuesday.

He said many already have been caught or killed in operations along the rugged, mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida operatives are believed to be hiding. "Apart from, if I may say so, the typical terrorist, we've got a new species," Gliemeroth said at a regular briefing. They are "excellently trained and ... they also have improved technique at hand."

Yemen and Saudi Arabia have conducted anti-terrorist raids following repeated calls by the United States to do more to curb Islamic militancy after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America. Gliemeroth said it was unclear if the terrorists were working in tandem with a particular group.

"Whether al-Qaida or special envoys from (renegade warlord) Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or representatives of al-Qaida, I guess it's a mixture," he said. "Against suicide bombs, there is no waterproof protection."

The German general said their intention was to bring the international terrorist campaign to Afghanistan. "Apart from doing harm to the integrity of the country ... they will try to infiltrate Kabul because it is the capital." Gliemeroth refused to say what countermeasures had been taken against the terrorists or how many had infiltrated the Afghan capital. "If there are only 15, the damage could be tremendous."

Afghanistan's hardline Muslim Taliban regime was toppled by a U.S.-led coalition in late 2001 for harboring members of al-Qaida, the terrorist network blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks. ISAF currently is confined to Kabul but the U.N. Security Council last week voted unanimously to allow the 31-country force to fan out to key cities in some of Afghanistan's most lawless provinces, where feuding warlords hold power.

Separately, an 11,500-member U.S.-led fighting coalition is in the country hunting down al-Qaida fugitives and remnants of Taliban insurgents. In recent weeks, the Taliban rebels have stepped up attacks against government troops, aid workers and U.S.-led coalition forces, mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

The increasing threats to Afghanistan's security also affect its porous border with Pakistan. The Pakistan army recently launched large scale raids on the ultraconservative Waziristan region to crackdown on Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents, while coalition forces operated on the Afghan side of the border to trap the insurgents. Pakistan said eight suspected al-Qaida operatives were killed and 18 others captured, but it did not disclose identities or nationalities.

Three explosions rock Afghan city
AFP 10/22/2003
THREE bombs exploded in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad today, tearing down walls at two government offices, police said. A witness said several people were injured by glass from windows shattered in the explosions.

The first blast was near the communication department. Within 10 minutes, a second bomb went off outside the electricity department about one kilometer (a half mile) away on the same street, said Haji Ajab Shah, the Jalalabad police chief. A third bomb exploded harmlessly in a field near a residential district, Shah said, speaking by telephone.

Taliban spokesman Maulvi Abdur Rahman Mansoor claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying "we will carry out more such operations against the oppressors." "Today's three explosions is a warning to foreigners to leave our country as soon as possible, or they would be faced with more problems," said Mansoor, a Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan. He reached The Associated Press by satellite telephone, saying he was somewhere in Afghanistan.

On Monday, pamphlets purportedly signed by Mansoor were distributed in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar, vowing the Taliban will continue their holy war against the Americans until they leave Afghanistan.

A US-led coalition ousted the Taliban militia in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida, which is blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. Thousands of international troops, most of them American soldiers, are in Afghanistan searching for fugitives from the two groups.

Rumsfeld Memo Questions U.S. Terror Fight
AP - 10/22/2003
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld questioned whether the United States was doing enough to win the war on terrorism, citing "mixed results" in the fight against Al Qaeda in a pointed memo to top Pentagon officials last week.

Rumsfeld said the U.S.-led coalitions would win in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not without "a long, hard slog." He wrote that the United States "has made reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis" but has made "somewhat slower progress" tracking down top Taliban leaders who sheltered Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The memo, dated Oct. 16 and first reported by USA Today on Wednesday, offered a much more stark assessment of the global war on terrorism than contained in Rumsfeld's public statements.

"It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog," he wrote. White House press secretary Scott McClellan, traveling with President Bush in Australia, declined to comment on the memo. Bush, however, talked about the war on terrorism with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Canberra, where he planned to discuss this with Prime Minister John Howard.

"I've always felt that there's a tendency of people to kind of seek a comfort zone and hope that the war on terror is over," Bush said. "And I view it as a responsibility of the United States to remind people of our mutual obligations to deal with the terrorists."

On the battle against the terror network blamed for the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center (search) and Pentagon, Rumsfeld wrote: "We are having mixed results with Al Qaeda, although we have put considerable pressure on them -- nonetheless, a great many remain at large." They include the group's top leader, Usama bin Laden (search), and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri (search).

Rumsfeld wrote "we are just getting started" in battling Ansar al-Islam, an Iraq-based terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda. Pentagon officials said the memo was another in a series of provocative questions that the secretary regularly raises with Pentagon brass.

"Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror," Rumsfeld wrote. "Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?"

Madrassas (search) are Islamic religious schools. Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials say some schools run by radical groups indoctrinate students to join in an anti-American holy war.

Rumsfeld's memo raises the possibility of creating "a private foundation to entice radical madrassas to a more moderate course" and questions how to block the funding of the extremist schools. Sounding a theme Rumsfeld has voiced repeatedly in the past two years, the memo says the Defense Department is too big and slow to effectively fight small groups of terrorists.

"It is not possible to change DoD fast enough to successfully fight the global war on terror," Rumsfeld wrote. "An alternative might be to try to fashion a new institution, either within DoD or elsewhere -- one that seamlessly focuses the capabilities of several departments and agencies on this key problem."

Rumsfeld also suggested the United States may need to do more to "stop the next generation of terrorists." "The U.S. is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists," Rumsfeld wrote. "The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' costs of millions."

600 Afghans hand their weapons
IRIB 10/22/2003
Kunduz - More than 600 Afghan militiamen have surrendered their weapons in the early phase of an ambitious nationwide demilitarization program, an official said Wednesday. The pilot phase of a UN-backed program to strip 100,000 combatants of their weapons and set them on the path to a new life is now in its third day in the northern city of Kunduz, 60 kilometers (38 miles) from the Tajikistan border and 250 kilometers from the capital Kabul.

Since Monday, 620 militiamen serving under two local commanders have handed in AK-47s, mortars, machine guns and anti-tank weapons.

Pakistan Nabs al-Qaida Money Leader's Aide
By KHALID TANVEER, AP
MULTAN, Pakistan - A Yemeni national arrested this week during a routine security check at a roadblock in eastern Pakistan is believed to be an aide of captured al-Qaida financial manager Abu Zubaydah, a police official said on Wednesday. The man, identified only as Abu Saleh, was arrested Monday along with a fellow Yemeni and a Pakistani in Faisalabad, an industrial city in Pakistan's Punjab province, when police stopped their car at a checkpoint as they left the city.

Abu Saleh worked closely with Abu Zubaydah, a senior lieutenant of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden who was captured in March 2002 in Faisalabad, said a Faisalabad police official on the condition of anonymity.

Zubaydah is believed to have been one of key money handlers in al-Qaida and an organizer of The Pakistani arrested at the checkpoint, identified as Mohammed Javed, disclosed Saleh's name and said he was linked with Zubaydah, the police officer said. The second Yemeni was identified as Adnan, alias Hasanat.

Javed has ties with the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an organization of extremist Sunni Muslims blamed for killing hundreds of minority Shiites in Pakistan, said the official. Javed, an expert in assembling bombs, met the Yemenis in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led coalition war against the Taliban in 2001, the official said. Police found two Kalashnikov rifles in a Faisalabad house where the three suspects lived. The men were being questioned by Pakistani intelligence agents in the capital Islamabad, the official said. Interior Ministry officials in the capital were not immediately available for comments.

Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has arrested at least 450 al-Qaida suspects. Besides Abu Zubaydah, they include at least two others allegedly involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshib.

Bin Laden aide murdered Daniel Pearl: report
NEW YORK (AFP) - US officials investigating the gruesome murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl now believe he was personally slain by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged organiser of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The Journal reported Tuesday that White House administration officials had developed credible, corroborated information that Mohammed -- believed to be one of Osama bin Laden's closes aides -- was "directly involved" in Pearl's murder.

Pearl was kidnapped on January 23 last year in the Pakistani city of Karachi where he was investigating Islamic militancy. A scratchy video of Pearl's throat being cut was delivered to the US consulate on February 21. It took until May 2002 to find his remains.

British-born militant Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh and three other Islamic militants were convicted in July of plotting the abduction and murder, but they were not present at the slaying and the actual killers have never been caught.

Mohammed was arrested in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi in March this year. He has since been held at an undisclosed location and has been interrogated by CIA personnel. Mohammed, 38, a Kuwaiti of Pakistani descent, is suspected of being a major financier and organizer for Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

As well as masterminding the September 11 attacks, he is accused of plotting to blow up 12 US airliners in the mid-1990s, and helping to plot the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.

In January, Time magazine had quoted Pakistani police sources as saying at least one witness saw Mohammed personally kill Pearl. A suspect in the abduction, Fazal Karim, reportedly told police that Mohammed had drawn the knife across the reporter's throat as he helped hold Pearl. Investigators have said Pearl's killers were Arabs.

Saudi defence minister says no military deals with Pakistan
RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia did not strike any military deals with Pakistan during Crown Prince Abdullah's weekend visit to Islamabad, Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz said in remarks. "No military agreements were concluded between the kingdom and Pakistan during Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's visit to Islamabad" on Saturday and Sunday, the daily Okaz quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

The newspaper did not make clear why the defense chief was denying that any military deals were signed between the two countries, which have close ties. Israeli radio on Tuesday quoted military intelligence chief Aharon Zeevi as telling the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee Saudi officials were currently discussing in Islamabad a request by Riyadh to deploy Pakistani "nuclear warheads" on its territory.

Earlier, Arab press reports said the two sides had discussed the possibility of deploying Pakistani troops in Saudi Arabia to replace thousands of US forces that were withdrawn from the kingdom following the US-led ouster of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in April, ending a 13-year military presence. Pentagon officials have said several hundred US military personnel remain in Saudi Arabia, performing tasks such as training and tending to military sales.

Pakistan says no US pressure to send troops to Iraq
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan has said the United states had requested Pakistan commit troops to peacekeeping operations in war-ravaged Iraq but stressed there was no pressure from Washington. Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said Tuesday consultations were underway but domestic compulsions prevent Islamabad's positive response so far to the US request.

"Of course the United States has been requesting us for quite some time to contribute peacekeepers and peacekeeping troops to Iraq. We have had consultations but there is no pressure," Khan told reporters at a weekly briefing here.

"Pakistan has its own compulsions and constraints and the United States understands them," he said alluding to public opinion in the country, which is strongly against sending troops to Iraq. He said dialogue with the United States was continuing, and consultations were also underway among the Islamic countries that have been asked to contribute troops to the peace effort in Iraq.

Washington has asked three Muslim states -- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey -- to deploy soldiers to ease the burden on US forces confronting mounting opposition in Iraq. President Pervez Musharraf last week said that despite a new Security Council resolution authorizing a multinational force for Iraq, Pakistan was not yet in a position to contribute troops.

Khan said Pakistan welcomed UN Security Council resolution 1511 as a "positive development", but it had certain reservations. The resolution, adopted by a 15-0 Security Council vote on October 16, authorises a multinational force in Iraq that could provide the international cover needed for wary nations such as Pakistan, a nonpermanent member, to send troops and cash to help stabilise the country.

However, the resolution does not adequately address the aspects pertaining to political transition, restoration of Iraq's sovereignty, security and reconstruction, Khan said. "A multinational force that is being created does not have a distinct identity. I think the most sensible thing to do would be that if troops from Muslim countries go there, they should be welcomed by the Iraqi people and the neighbouring states, otherwise the gesture or the steps would not produce the desired results."

The primary concern for Pakistan and other Muslim countries is "to take a step that would help restore peace and stability in Iraq and help fight a humanitarian crisis there", he added. Foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on Sunday said troops to Iraq could be sent only if a request was received from the Iraqi people and a consensus was reached among the Muslim countries to meet such a request.

Bush Says Iran Moves on Nuclear Programs Positive
BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) - President Bush said on Wednesday that moves by Iran on nuclear policy were "a very positive development." Iran agreed on Tuesday to accept snap inspections of its nuclear sites and to freeze uranium enrichment in what three visiting European ministers hailed as a promising start to removing doubts about Tehran's atomic aims.

Asked at a news conference in Indonesia if he was confident Iran was foreswearing nuclear weapons, Bush thanked the British, French and German foreign ministers "for taking a very strong universal message to the Iranians that they should disarm." "It looks like they're accepting the demands of the free world and now it's up to them to prove that they've accepted the demands. It's a very positive development," Bush said.

Pakistan's PM leaves for Iran
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali left for Tehran on a three-day official visit to Iran aimed at boosting economic cooperation between the two Muslim neighbours, officials said. Jamali will hold wide-ranging talks with President Mohammad Khatami on bilateral matters, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan-India relations, they said on Tuesday.

Officials said Jamali will also discuss economic issues and steps to enhance trade between the two countries. The prime minister, accompanied by information minister Sheikh Rashid, commerce minister Hummayun Akhtar and petroleum and natural resources minister Nouraiz Shakoor, will also meet Iran's first vice-president Reza Aref.

"We want good relations with Tehran and the visit of the prime minister would open new vistas of cooperation in different fields," Sheikh Rashid said. Jamali will also call on Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei and former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, officials said.

India, Brazil, South Africa candidates for UN security council: Amorim
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India, Brazil and South Africa are strong candidates to become permanent members of the United Nations Security Council as all three developing countries have stable democracies, the Brazilian Foreign Minister has said. Celso Amorim, who is on a visit here, told the Hindu newspaper in an interview published Wednesday that the three countries would push to overhaul the Security Council.

"The three countries formed a trilateral commission in June this year, working together will be important for reforming the Security Council itself," said Amorim. With a population of more than one billion, India has long sought a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, contending that the current members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- no longer represent today's world order. In June Brazil, South Africa and India agreed to set up a dialogue forum to further cooperation.

South African President Thabo Mbeki's state visit to New Delhi last week focussed on the trilateral forum which is aimed at boosting trade and pooling political muscle in talks with rich nations. "It is the first case of systematically seeking the tripartite cooperation between countries of the south and I think it will be a very good example if it flourishes," said Amorim.

He said India and Brazil wanted to cement the bond within the G-22 developing countries' grouping that banded together at the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks last month to press the developed world to phase out their farm subsidies, which run at nearly one billion dollars a day. He also said he had discussed the Iraq situation with Indian leaders.

"From what I know, the Saddam Hussein government could be accused of many things... but it was not a hotbed of terrorism," said Amorim. "Now, because of the lack of government, the lack of clear legitimate authority, apparently it is more prone to these things (terrorist acts) then it was before."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva issued an impassioned appeal on Tuesday for multilateralism in a speech to the UN General Assembly that implicitly criticised US policy on Iraq. "A war can perhaps be won single-handedly. But peace -- lasting peace -- cannot be secured without the support of all," Lula said. "The tragedies that have befallen Iraq and the Middle East can only be overcome within a multilateral framework, one in which the UN is given a central role," he added. In his first address to the UN since his election as president in January, Lula pushed for reform of the world body -- particularly the composition of the Security Council.