Musharraf to get more US support for stable Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, May 16 (Reuters) Pakistan's support is crucial to NATO allies' efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, and the United States will continue to back President Pervez Musharraf, a US envoy visiting Islamabad said on Wednesday.

''I don't think that President Musharraf has reached the end of his line,'' said Ronald E Neumann, who until a month ago was American ambassador in Kabul and is now on a mission to Central Asian states to explain the situation and strategy in Afghanistan.

''He seems to be a leader who is capable of many good things, which is why we have given him a great deal of support, and plan to give more support,'' he told journalists in a briefing in Islamabad.

Neumann did not mention Musharraf's domestic woes. The Pakistani leader is under mounting pressure after plunging the country into a judicial crisis by trying to sack the top judge two months ago.

Asked whether the US administration was frustrated by the rarity of Pakistan's arrests of senior Taliban figures, Neumann replied: ''We all need to do more. That's what we're asking for.'' Neumann discussed last weekend's bloody clashes between Pakistani troops and Afghans, and said there needed to be more focus on issues regarding the disputed border.

In his assessment, the overall situation with regard to the Taliban insurgency was better than a year ago.

MORE OPTIMISTIC ''I am not trying to tell you that everything is good in Afghanistan, I said I'm relatively more optimistic that I was before.'' In Eastern Afghanistan the fighting had lessened and reconstruction teams had moved into areas where they had never ventured before, Neumann said.

The Panjwai district of Kandahar had settled down after last year's NATO campaign to rid the area of insurgents, and the situation in neighbouring Helmand province had substantially improved after a NATO offensive pre-empted the Taliban.

Neumann also cited the elimination of three senior members of the Taliban's leadership council and several more lesser commanders as a clear message to the next generation of Taliban leaders that they were on a losing wicket.

Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Osmani was killed by an air strike in Afghanistan in December, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund was caught in Pakistan in March, and last week US-led forces scored their biggest success by killing military commander Mullah Dadullah in southern Afghanistan.

Those Taliban who wanted to give up fighting could rejoin the political process, but they could not expect to negotiate their way into positions of power or alter the political structure, the former ambassador said.

Neumann said Afghan anger over civilian casualties resulting from air strikes would have to be addressed before it resulted in an official request for NATO to leave the country, although he did not see that happening any time soon.

''We have to find better ways to prevent these kind of casualties in the future.'' He also said a surge in poppy production in Helmand province had offset successes in the counter-narcotics campaign in the north and centre of the country, and the insurgency was being financed by drug money.

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