June 7, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 6, 1424

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LONDON, June 6: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Friday he believed Osama bin Laden was probably alive and further attacks like those of Sept 11 could still occur, but he nevertheless expressed optimism on Afghanistan’s future.

Speaking to BBC radio during an official three-day visit to Britain, Karzai said Al Qaeda no longer had a presence in his country.

Asked whether he believed another Sept 11 could happen, Karzai told the British people: “I hope not ... things like that can be done by an individual.

“In Afghanistan they still can have a gun and come and kill common people. Do we have the capability to stop that? Does any nation have the capability to stop that? No,” he said.

Karzai said Al Qaeda could no longer operate in large groups in Afghanistan. “The evidence is that they are no longer in Afghanistan. The evidence is that they no longer control territory. The evidence is that they are on the run, they are hiding,” he said.

He said he had “no idea” where Osama was. “There are signs that he’s alive. There also signs that he’s not alive. Now we don’t know.

“Sometimes we hear that he’s along the Afghan border, sometimes we hear that he’s in some other countries. I can’t say. Probably he is (alive),” he said.

In a BBC TV interview on Thursday evening, Karzai asked for aid of 15-20 billion dollars over the next five years to stabilize the country economically and end the dependence of many on cultivating opium poppies.

Nearly all the heroin sold in Britain is thought to come from Afghanistan, and ending the cultivation of poppies and the manufacture of opium in the country is high on the British government’s list of priorities.—dpa