Foreign troops will flee Afghanistan-Taliban chief

KABUL, Dec 29 (Reuters) Foreign troops will be forced out of Afghanistan in the face of Taliban attacks, the Islamic group's fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was reported as saying in a rare message today.

More than 4,000 people have been killed in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest since US-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban government in 2001.

In the purported message from Omar, sent to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, Omar said ''aggressor forces'' in Afghanistan and Iraq were facing defeat.

''I am confident that the enemy will run away in degradation and embarrassment ... Afghans have always expelled their enemies by force and no enemy or aggressive force has left Afghanistan at its own will,'' Omar said.

Omar also said a plan to hold tribal councils, or jirgas, on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border in an effort to find ways to end the violence was a trap.

''Now the aggressor forces in our country want to entangle our valiant nation and tribes in their devilish trap by way of jirgas,'' he said, according to an Urdu-language translation of the message, issued by AIP.

''But I am sure that no Muslim will participate in something that is created by the aggressors and puppets. Those who attend will only be people who have sold out,'' he said.

The Taliban refer to Western-backed President Hamid Karzai and his government as puppets.

''Our aggressor enemy has been defeated and now they are hatching new conspiracies for their survival,'' he said.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are considering how the jirgas can be organised and who will take part.

Politicians in both countries have said peace will not be found unless elements of the Taliban are included in talks.

Omar, who has a 10 million dollar US government bounty on his head, disappeared shortly after the Taliban were ousted.

REUTERS PDM VV1553