KABUL, Jan 20: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday accused his western allies of not doing enough to stop civilian deaths in the ‘war on terror’ or cut opium production in areas patrolled by foreign troops.

Speaking at the opening of parliament, Mr Karzai called for a rethink in the international strategy aimed at rooting out extremists and cracking down on drug farming, and on how billions of dollars in reconstruction aid were spent.

“We don’t accept civilian casualties in our land in the war on terrorism,” he told about 300 parliamentarians and guests, including representatives of the United Nations, embassies and foreign military forces.

“We have never complained about our police being martyred thousands of our police have been martyred. We have never complained about the deaths of our soldiers hundreds have died,” the president said.

“If thousands are killed in the war on terrorism... we will accept that. But we don’t and will never accept civilian casualties in our land,” he said, to shouts ‘Allah Akbar’ (God is the greatest) from MPs expressing approval.

Civilian casualties from international military operations against Taliban and other insurgents have strained relations between Kabul and its backers, who have 60,000-70,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them Americans.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force has said that just over 200 civilians were killed by foreign troops last year.

However, the United Nations says roughly 2,000 civilians were killed in 2008, more than half of them in insurgent attacks, implying that several hundreds died during foreign and Afghan troop operations.

Mr Karzai and other critics say civilian deaths risk turning Afghans against international intervention in their country, and could encourage them to support rebels in a growing extremist insurgency.

“We want our allies to rethink their military operations... We want change in military operations, we want effectiveness in the ‘war on terror’,” he said.

His trenchant criticism comes just two days after the head of Nato, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, charged that the current Afghan authorities were almost as much to blame for the country’s dire straits as the resurgent Taliban.

Mr Karzai also accused his international allies of not doing enough to curb the drugs trade. Afghanistan produces more than 90 per cent of the world’s illegal opium and uses most of it to make heroin destined for Europe and elsewhere.

“Where the government of Afghanistan has no authority, poppy cultivation is high,” he said.

He was most likely referring to Helmand, which produces most of the country’s opium. Most of the nearly 8,000 British troops in Afghanistan are in the province but several of its districts are under Taliban control.

“Regarding fighting drugs cultivation and smuggling, we ask our international allies to put their commitments into genuine action,” he said.—AFP