WASHINGTON, May 1: The United States on Thursday formally declared that major combat in Afghanistan was over.

Analysts said the US stopped short of declaring a formal end to the conflict as it would have obligated Washington to free its Afghan prisoners, among other things.

The Pentagon said in Washington that the formal declaration was made by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Kabul on Thursday, the same day President George W. Bush is expected to make a similar announcement on Iraq from the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Under the Geneva Conventions, an international code of conduct that governs war and military conflict, once war is declared over the victorious army must release prisoners of war and halt operations targeting specific leaders.

The Bush administration, however, does not recognize all those arrested in Afghanistan as prisoners of war. Most of those kept at a prison camp in Cuba or at other US facilities around the world are treated as suspected terrorists, a designation that reduces their legal rights.

Similarly, Washington describes its military actions in Afghanistan as operations against terrorists that can continue even after the war was declared over.

“We have clearly moved from major combat activity,” Mr Rumsfeld said in a joint news conference with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace. “The bulk of the country today is permissive (and) secure.”

The transcript of the news conference was also released in Washington. Mr Rumsfeld conceded that all fighting was not over in the country.

Although US forces removed the Taliban government in December 2001, Washington has a substantial number of troops in Afghanistan to help the new Afghan government maintain law and order.

Despite the formal US declaration that war in Afghanistan is over, there’s little peace in that war-torn country. Earlier this week, the United Nations reported that 38 civilians, including women and children, died in fighting in Akhazi, a village in northern Afghanistan. More than 780 homes and shops were looted. Local soldiers executed 26 people. A UN mine clearance team came under fire in the north. A Red Cross worker was killed in the south, and the Oxfam hunger relief organization has pulled out of the south for six months because of security concerns.

The Pentagon, however, considers these problems internal to the country and not related to the presence of Al Qaeda or the Taliban, so the United States’ emphasis is shifting from combat to stability and reconstruction. Reconstruction headed by three provincial reconstruction teams. Up to six more will be added, Mr Rumsfeld said.