January 31, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 21, 1429

BERLIN: President Hamid Karzai said training the Afghan police and army was more important than sending more foreign troops to the country, in an interview with a German newspaper on Wednesday.

“More than anything else, we need help to rebuild our human capital and our institutions, our army, our police force, our administrative structure, our judiciary and so on,” Karzai told Die Welt.

“Although the situation has finally improved, the unintentional bombing of Afghan civilians by Nato and US troops is particularly painful, although it stems from a lack of ground troops.

“However, I am not sure that sending more troops is the right answer.” Karzai said he had the impression that the war “is not happening here”, but was being exported to Afghanistan from other countries.

“We should concentrate on the sanctuaries and the training camps,” he said.

“Afghanistan is not a sanctuary. It was one, but we have taken it back.” Most concern focuses on the mountainous border area with Pakistan, where Afghan and western forces believe Taliban extremists regroup to launch attacks in southern Afghanistan.

Karzai said his recent meeting with President Pervez Musharraf had been “very constructive.” “My hope is that Pakistan will take harder and clearer measures in the future and thus becomes a region where extremism is no longer used as a political instrument.—AFP