Troops in Afghanistan can't end terror - Karzai

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 (Reuters) Foreign troops in Afghanistan will not be able to end attacks by Taliban militants unless steps are also taken to ''destroy terrorist sanctuaries'' outside the country, President Hamid Karzai said today, in a reference to Pakistan.

NATO troops are battling to quell the heaviest bout of violence in Afghanistan since 2001 when US-led forces overthrew the islamic-fundamentalist Taliban, which had been sheltering Osama bin-Laden and his al Qaeda organization.

Karzai told the UN General Assembly that outsiders, whom he did not identify, were behind the new upsurge of violence.

''Military action in Afghanistan alone, therefore, will not deliver our shared goal of eliminating terrorism,'' he told the UN General Assembly.

US Army Gen John Abizaid, the commander overseeing American operations in Afghanistan, yesterday expressed concern about Taliban military activity being organized and supported from inside Pakistan.

Rebels can freely cross the mountainous frontier between the two countries. Some Afghan leaders have accused Islamabad of failing to do enough to stop infiltration, or even of continuing to support its former protege, the Taliban.

US President George W Bush will host a joint meeting in Washington next week with Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to discuss the situation.

In his speech, Karzai said: ''We must look beyond Afghanistan to the sources of terrorism. We must destroy terrorist sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan, dismantle the elaborate networks in the region that recruit, indoctrinate, train, finance, arm and deploy terrorists.'' Pro-Taliban militants and the Pakistani government reached a peace deal on September 5 under which the militants agreed to stop attacks in the country and in Afghanistan in return for a halt in government's operations in the region.

Critics say Pakistan's government has virtually caved in to the militants' demands and the strategy risked creating a safe haven for Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda allies.

Karzai said the fight against terror was linked to faltering attempts to eradicate the narcotics trade.

He blamed booming poppy production on weak security for Afghan counter-narcotics agents and the lack of credible programs to persuade Afghan farmers to grow other crops.

REUTERS PB VC2202