Can't walk away from Afghanistan - Aussie minister

OTTAWA, Sep 18 (Reuters) Countries battling the Taliban cannot just cut and run from Afghanistan unless they want to hand terrorists a major victory, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.

Downer was speaking to reporters alongside Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay after news emerged that four Canadian soldiers had been killed in a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan.

''Without foreign forces -- and particularly without foreign forces prepared to make a real effort such as the Canadians -- then Afghanistan would revert to the Taliban,'' Downer said at a news conference televised from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

''Australia and Canada, we can't just walk away from Afghanistan, and think that giving the terrorists a gigantic victory, letting the Taliban seize Afghanistan again and use it as a base for terrorist operations around the world -- that that wouldn't be a terrible thing for the world.'' Both countries have forces in Afghanistan, but Canada has suffered more casualties as its forces are in the more violent Kandahar region in the south.

MacKay said the Taliban have the strongest hold in that area and have shown the fiercest resistance, and were now feeling the pinch on territory they thought they would hold.

In May, Canada's Parliament narrowly endorsed an extension of its presence in Afghanistan through February 2009.

MacKay reaffirmed the commitment, with the goal of rebuilding and providing the security needed for Afghans to return to their country.

''Do we want to leave Afghanistan? Well, we want to leave Afghanistan when those things are achieved in a meaningful way and when Afghans are able to control their borders, when they're able to exert their own democratic principles,'' he said.

''I believe in spite of some casualties and some very high cost as far as our investment there with the men and women in uniform, these are values and principles worth fighting for.'' REUTERS PR BST0017