KANDAHAR, Feb 18: A top Taliban commander warned on Wednesday that Afghans who take part in elections this year will face attack, the first direct threat the guerillas have issued to the UN-backed polls.

Mullah Dadullah, who is blamed for ordering the killing of a foreign Red Cross worker last year, warned Afghans not to vote in the poll supposed to be held in June. "The people of Afghanistan must not participate in the election," he said from an undisclosed location.

"If they do, they will come under Taliban attack." But the new head of the NATO-led peacekeepers in Afghanistan voiced confidence that free and fair elections could be held in the country.

"We think the security environment is improving and will get to the point where successful elections can occur and be free and fair," said Lt Gen Rick Hillier, the Canadian commander of the 6,500-strong International Security Assistance Force.

"Whether that's early summer, middle summer or late summer, is a judgment that the president (of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai) will make." Mullah Dadullah is one of elusive Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's most-trusted lieutenants and a member of a 10-man leadership council set up last year. It was the second time in three days he has issued a threat.

The Taliban threatened late last year to disrupt a Loya Jirga, or Grand Assembly, called to approve a constitution to pave the way for the elections.

The assembly was held successfully amid tight security, but guaranteeing safe polls will be a much taller order for the foreign peacekeepers and a US-led force based in Afghanistan.

Jean Arnault, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said he expected there to be threats against the elections, but pointed to the successful Loya Jirga. "There were warnings (against the Loya Jirga) issued by people claiming to belong to the Taliban... These warnings in fact had very little impact," he said at a Kabul news conference.

Voter registration has fallen behind schedule with only one million of the 10.5 million eligible voters so far listed and threats from the Taliban will not help, especially in southern provinces where they have mounted repeated attacks.

U.N. officials have already expressed concerns about registration in the south, especially of women in what are ultra-conservative heart lands. Mullah Dadullah reiterated a Taliban vow to target Muslims working for foreign aid agencies or assisting the United States and threatened more suicide attacks against US soldiers and NATO-led peacekeepers.

"Everywhere there are US and ISAF forces, we will do suicide attacks," he said, referring to International Security Assistance Force peacekeepers.-Reuters