ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: The kidnapping of a US journalist has fuelled fears that extremists were gearing in revenge for terrorist attacks on the Western targets in Pakistan after the Taliban were routed in Afghanistan.

There was no trace of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl after he was abducted in Pakistan, and diplomats coupled his kidnapping with bombs recently placed under vehicles belonging to the European embassies here.

“But the worst is yet to come. What we have seen up to now are isolated warnings,” a US diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Extremist Islamic Pakistanis who fought alongside the Taliban were returning home ‘bitter’, a European diplomat said.”They are digesting their defeat. It will only be a few weeks before we are likely to be confronted by organised terrorism.”

He said: “Western diplomats and journalists are thus ideal targets,” and the kidnapping and attempted bombings were ‘messages’.

Pearl, 38, disappeared in Karachi on Jan 23 after telling his wife he was going to meet the leader of a little known militant Islamic organisation.

A group calling itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty had sent a series of e-mails with photos of Pearl in captivity, threatening to kill him, then extending the deadline.

But police dismissed another e-mail claiming Pearl had been killed and US officials hoped that he would be still alive.

The e-mails demanded the release of Pakistanis among the prisoners taken from Afghanistan to a US naval base in Cuba and the improvement of the conditions of the other prisoners there.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has ruled out any negotiations on the prisoners, and the State Department has called for Pearl’s ‘unconditional’ release saying the kidnapper’s cause was “not being forwarded” by holding him hostage.

As the focus of the war on terrorism widened from Afghanistan, hundreds more US troops were to arrive in the Philippines, despite threats from the communist and Muslim separatists that they would be attacked, local military officials said.

About 600 US troops are already in the country, supporting the local military hunting Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas allied to Osama bin Laden.

The Abu Sayyaf are known to hold three hostages, including two Americans, and a Filipina journalist who attempted to interview the guerrillas has been missing since Jan 19.

A Philippines military spokesman said another 800 Americans would arrive in the next few months to take part in training exercises.

Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has warned that most members of bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network still roamed his country.

While “quite a few” Al-Qaeda members had been arrested, “the majority of them are on the run”, he told BBC television.

Karzai’s immediate problem, however, was dealing with factional fighting as warlords attempted to muscle their way into power in the provinces following the defeat of the Taliban.

The country needed to rid itself of warlordism, he said, as fresh fighting erupted in the north and tensions remained high after factional battles in the east.

“This is one more reason why we should finish warlordism in this country,” Karzai told AFP.

The fighting undermined Karzai’s efforts to contain growing unrest, and foreign military commanders in Kabul said a force of more than 30,000 would be needed to secure the country.

The battle, in northern Mazar-i-Sharif pitched forces loyal to Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam against those of rival Tajik commander Atta Mohammad, defence ministry official Mira Jan said.

He described it as a “minor clash” in which no one was killed, but coming just days after a heavy battle in eastern Gardez and other tense standoffs between warlords in the north, it underscored the brittle hold the interim government had on outlying provinces.

While Karzai has asked world leaders for more troops to secure the country, commanders with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told AFP it would be very difficult to arrange the kind of the force needed.

Few countries seem willing to offer the troops strength required and problems also would arise due to the limited airport and communications facilities, they said.

“If there is a need to expand militarily, it will be extremely difficult to do that because already we are operating with an air bridge,” said ISAF spokesman Neal Peckham.

A senior member of the French ISAF contingent estimated it would take “much over 30,000 to cover the five main cities as well as the roads.”

Karzai last week raised the need for more troops with the UN Security Council, US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

But he returned to Kabul empty handed and faced with mounting instability.

The fighting in the Paktia capital Gardez erupted when Karzai’s handpicked governor Padsha Khan and tried to take up his post through force after rival Pashtun tribal leader Saif Ullah refused to give up power.

Some 50 people were killed in the two-day battle which saw Khan’s troops retreat from the town late Thursday.

A government source said the defeat of Padsha Khan was “humiliating” for Karzai.

“It shows that his power barely extends beyond Kabul. How he deals with the problem will determine whether he will in future be known as the leader of Afghanistan or only of Kabul.”

In Kuala Lumpur, a former Malaysian army captain who allegedly met two Sep 11 hijackers and another suspected Al-Qaeda member in Malaysia has been detained under the country’s Internal Security Act (ISA) for two years.—APP