February 23, 2007	Friday	Safar 5, 1428

KABUL, Feb 22: The West must win the war against Islamic militants in Afghanistan or face attacks in their own countries, Nato Secretary-General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer said on Thursday.

“If we like it or not, Afghanistan ... is a frontline in the fight against those people who want to destroy the fabric of our societies,” he told a joint news conference with President Hamid Karzai after talks in Kabul.

“If we don't succeed in Afghanistan, I am quite sure that the spoilers will come to us to the Netherlands, to Belgium, to the United Kingdom, (as) they came to the United States,” he said referring to the Sept 11 attacks by Al Qaeda.

Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since US-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 for harbouring Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network after Sept 11.

Amid warnings by the Taliban of a spring offensive, Western analysts say this year is a crunch period to win the war.

De Hoop Scheffer said NATO should focus on reconstruction, paying more attention to training and equipping the Afghan army.

For its part, the Afghan government needs to build up its institutions, fight against endemic corruption and drugs in the world's leading producer of heroin, he added.

Nato has over 33,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Some of its member countries have shown reluctance to send more troops or lift the restrictions over the deployment of troops to the southern and eastern regions, the main bastion of the militants.

More than 4,000 people, nearly a quarter of them civilians, but also about 170 foreign troops died in violence last year, mostly in the two regions.

The militants operate from safe heavens in Pakistan, the former key supporter of the Taliban until the Sept 11 attacks.

TROOPS WITHDRAWAL: Canada's opposition Liberals promised on Thursday to withdraw the country's 2,500 soldiers from Afghanistan in early 2009, as scheduled, if they win the next federal election.

The minority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which pushed through the extension of the mission from 2007 to 2009 last year, has yet to say whether the soldiers will come back as planned.

Canada's troops, part of a larger Nato force, are based in the southern city of Kandahar and spent much of 2006 fighting Taliban militants. Since 2002, 44 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have died.

“I will say unequivocally that a Liberal government led by me will not extend Canada's combat mission in Kandahar beyond February 2009,” Liberal leader Stephane Dion said in a speech in Montreal.

Dion said Harper had mismanaged the file and as a result Afghans now associated Canadians with fighting rather than rebuilding the shattered country.

“Total coalition spending on military operations in Afghanistan outpaces spending on development and reconstruction by 900 per cent. Today, only 20 per cent of Canada's development assistance to Afghanistan is spent in Kandahar. This imbalance must be corrected,” he said.

“Between now and 2009, a Liberal government I lead will adopt a more integrated strategy in Kandahar, with a greater development and diplomatic thrust, and a real effort to win the hearts and minds of Afghans.”—Reuters