Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and Afghan President Hamid Karzai , sign a 10-year co-operation agreement at Number 10 Downing Street, in London, Tuesday July 19, 2005.(AP Photo/ Andrew Parsons, pool)

Blair, Karzai in plea on terror - By Andrew North BBC News, Kabul

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have said "terrorists" blamed for attacks in both countries must be defeated. The two men were speaking at a news conference after talks in London.

Mr Blair said London's bombers and others used Iraq and Afghanistan as an excuse. He again denied the invasion of Iraq had made Britain a target.

President Karzai said Afghanistan shared the UK's pain, and called for people to unite against terrorism. He said Afghans shared the suffering of people in London following the suicide bombings which killed more than 50 people there on 7 July. "We in Afghanistan can feel that pain perhaps better than any other country," he told reporters.

Afghanistan is facing an upsurge in violence, blamed on hardline Taleban fighters, which has claimed at least 600 lives this year.

Mr Karzai said the violence in Afghanistan and the UK was "not related to Islam". He said Muslims had been targeted in the attacks, and he condemned the recent assassinations of clerics in Afghanistan and bombings at mosques.

Mr Blair said it was important people did not give in to "the perverted and twisted logic" used by those who carried out the attacks. "The Afghan people and the Iraqis are trying to establish a democracy. This same terrorism is trying to stop them."

President Karzai's visit is his third to the UK since he took over after the fall of the Taleban three-and-a-half years ago. Through military and economic aid, Britain has played a central role in helping the country with its fragile efforts to recover from years of war and turmoil. The Afghan leader wants to ensure that help continues.

He and Mr Blair are due to sign a 10-year co-operation agreement. In the light of the London attacks, President Karzai has decided to use his visit to speak out against extreme Islamic ideologies, a senior Afghan official told the BBC.

The views promoted by Osama Bin Laden will be a particular target. One place he plans to deliver this message is at a mosque in London. Mr Karzai feels strongly about the issue, the official said, because of the suffering Afghanistan experienced as a result of becoming al-Qaeda's sanctuary until 2001.

Even though Bin Laden's network no longer has a firm base in Afghanistan, it is still seen as a threat to the country and is accused of helping to orchestrate the recent increase in violence.

Iraq and Afghanistan only 'an excuse' for terrorists: Blair

London (AFP 7/19/05) -Prime Minister Tony Blair rounded on critics who allege his support for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars made Britain more vulnerable to terrorists, insisting they were merely "an excuse" for attacks.

"Of course, these terrorists will use Iraq as an excuse, or use Afghanistan," Blair told a press conference when quizzed about the reasons behind the July 7 London bombings in which at least 56 people died.

"September 11, of course, happened before both of those things and then the excuse was American policy, or Israel," he said Tuesday, referring to the 2001 attacks on the United States.

"They will always have their reasons for acting," he said, speaking alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "But we've got to be very careful of almost giving in to the sort of perverted and twisted logic with which they argue," Blair warned.

On Monday, the Royal Institute of International Affairs think tank released a report saying Blair's support for the US-led Iraq war made Britain a more high-profile terrorist target. On Tuesday, a newspaper poll said that two-thirds of Britons believe there was a link between the London bombings and the conflict.

Pakistan holds suspected Taliban officials

ISLAMABAD, July 19 (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces have arrested some suspected Taliban officials in a raid in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, police said on Tuesday.

Pakistani newspaper reports quoted unnamed officials as saying Mawlavi Abdul Kabir -- a deputy of elusive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar -- was among those arrested, but senior Pakistani officials said they were unable to confirm this.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi denied Kabir had been arrested and said there were no important Taliban officials among the "four or five" he said had been arrested in Pakistan.

Police said "a few" suspected Taliban officials were arrested on Saturday night in a raid on an Afghan refugee camp in Akora Khattack, a town around 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"A few people have been arrested who are suspected to be Taliban but their identity has not yet been established," a senior police officer in Akora Khattack said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, contacted by Reuters, said they were unable to confirm that the group included Kabir.

Pakistani officials also said they arrested three members of a Sunni Muslim militant group in the port city of Karachi early on Tuesday. The members of the outlawed Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami (Movement of Holy Warriors International) were arrested during a raid before dawn on house in a slum area of the southern city, but two others managed to escape, the police said.

“The militants were planning to carry out attacks against minority sects, including Shi'ites, in Karachi," Ali Murad Charan, a police inspector involved in the arrests, told Reuters.

Charan also said the three took part in fighting with Pakistani security forces in a tribal area near the Afghan border, where al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are said to be holed up.

Taliban spokesman Hakimi, who spoke to Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location, said Kabir was not in Pakistan and had never visited the country. "Mawlavi Kabir is inside Afghanistan and is commanding Taliban forces in Paktika," he said, referring to an eastern province bordering Pakistan.

Afghan defence ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said Kabir's arrest, if confirmed, would be a positive development in terms of both cooperation between the Afghan and Pakistan governments and for the security situation ahead of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections on Sept 18.

Hakimi said in April that Kabir was the head of the Taliban's political commission, which would make him the number two to Mullah Omar. In April, Kabir rejected as baseless reports that he had held reconciliation talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.

Kabir served as the Taliban's top military commander in the east of Afghanistan during the group's rule until late 2001. According to Afghan sources, he played a big role in providing safe passage in 2001 for senior al Qaeda figures, including Osama bin Laden, who had been trapped by U.S.-led forces in the Tora Bora mountains after the Taliban's fall.

U.S. and Afghan officials have often complained that a large number of the Taliban have found sanctuary in Pakistan, from where they plan and launch attacks inside Afghanistan.

Pakistan was the main backer of the Taliban, but officially abandoned the Islamists after they refused to hand over bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Pakistan says it is doing all it can to stem the militants' activity and has deployed thousands of troops along its long, porous border with Afghanistan to prevent guerrilla movement.

The whereabouts of bin Laden and Omar remain unknown, but U.S. officials have said they are believed to be hiding in the rugged region on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan

Afghanistan hails Pakistan's Taliban arrests, but disputes claim that one is a top leader - AMIR SHAH     

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) Afghanistan on Tuesday welcomed the purported capture of five senior Taliban leaders in neighboring Pakistan, but disputed Pakistani officials' claim that one was a deputy to fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials had told The Associated Press on Monday that one of the men, Maulvi Abdul Qadeer _ formerly chairman of the Taliban Special Council _ was a deputy to Omar.

But Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Saher Azimi said that was "not correct." "In the leadership of the Taliban, we have no one named Qadeer," he told reporters in Kabul.

A former top Taliban official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he no longer wants to be associated with the group, also said Qadeer was not among the top Taliban leaders and was never an adviser to Omar.

Both Pakistani officials had also spoken on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to reporters. On Tuesday, Pakistani authorities declined to confirm that the five had been detained.

The Pakistani officials had identified another one of the five as Abdul Kabir, a former governor in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. They would say of the other three only that they "are also important Taliban leaders."

Azimi said the arrests, if confirmed, were positive steps ahead of crucial Afghan legislative elections in September. "If true, such a step is very important for security in the region, especially before the election," Azimi said. "Such an action by Pakistan has had a positive effect."

The two Pakistani officials said the arrests were made Monday when security agents raided several homes in the country's northwest. One of officials, again speaking on condition of anonymity, on Tuesday repeated his claim that Qadeer is a deputy to Omar.

"He was a big catch," he said. The official said the five have been brought to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, for questioning. Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, has arrested more than 700 Taliban and al-Qaida members, including high-level operatives, since the hard-line Taliban was ousted from power in Afghanistan in 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden and Omar have so far eluded capture, but U.S. and Afghan officials believe they are hiding out in Pakistan's rugged tribal area on the Afghan border.

Pakistan has deployed more than 70,000 troops in this region to flush out Taliban and al-Qaida remnants. The purported arrests came hours after Pakistan's government announced that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will travel to Afghanistan on July 24 to discuss how the two countries could improve economic ties and ensure better coordination against terrorism.

Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing enough to fight militants on its territory, and say a recent massive surge of rebel violence in Afghanistan is largely caused by insurgents based across the border.

Pakistan says all 17 militants killed in gunbattle were from Kazakhstan

Islamabad (AFP) - The Pakistani military said that 17 militants gunned down near the Afghan border were all from Kazakhstan and included women and teenage youths.

"We now believe the entire group was from Kazakhstan," military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP on Monday. He said the authorities recovered four passports and some documents and identity cards which indicated they were Kazakhs.

Troops hunting militants with suspected links to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban killed the 17 in a clash in the rugged border tribal area on Sunday. The clash broke out two days after US forces in Afghanistan killed 24 suspected Al-Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies on the Pakistani side of the border.

Pakistani troops acting on a tip-off cordoned off a hideout in an isolated complex outside Miranshah, the main town in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan tribal region.

The 17, including women and teenagers, were killed as they tried to break the siege and flee the compound in two vehicles after a shoot-out, Sultan said. One vehicle was knocked out and the other was crippled.

The general said the group included women and youths aged under 20, who also took part in the fighting. "These guys were all trained fighters," the general said adding that women and young people received training in explosives.

He said local officials and elders had tried for more than two hours to persuade the group to surrender but a gunbattle erupted when they tried to escape in their vehicles. The women hurled grenades when security forces stopped them, Sultan said.

Troops recovered arms and ammunition, including detonators, explosives and bomb-making instructions. Sixteen locals who had helped the group were arrested.

Pakistan, a key ally in the US "war on terror", has deployed about 70,000 troops along its border with southeastern Afghanistan to track down foreign militants in the tribal area.

Taliban attacks in the southeast have surged in recent months ahead of Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary elections in September. Al-Qaeda and Taliban members fled to the deeply religious region after the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001 by US-led attacks.

In a series of operations since last year, Pakistani forces have destroyed hideouts and training camps of militants linked to Al-Qaeda and killed hundreds of rebels, officials say. About 250 soldiers have also died.

Afghan Zardad jailed for 20 years – BBC 7/19/05

An Afghan warlord found guilty of torture and hostage taking in his home country has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Faryadi Zardad, 42, of Streatham, London, convicted in a landmark case at the Old Bailey on Monday, was given two 20-year terms to run concurrently.

It was thought to be the first time torture offences committed in one country were prosecuted in another. The judge recommended Zardad be deported after serving his sentence.

Mr Justice Tready told the Afghan national, who controlled a series of military checkpoints between Kabul and Jalalabad, he was "in a position of real power." "You were personally involved in these acts of torture and hostage-taking as well as authorising your men."

One of the key legal challenges of the case had been to show that although Zardad did not necessarily administer torture himself he was still responsible through the men he controlled at his checkpoints. The Old Bailey jury found Zardad guilty after hearing in a lengthy retrial of numerous incidents of hostage taking between 1992 and 1996.

The jury in his first trial, last year, had been unable to agree. The warlord, who came to Britain on a fake passport in 1998, was first tracked down at his south London home by John Simpson for BBC Newsnight. Police then mounted an investigation, which involved officers making several trips to Afghanistan under armed escort to track down the warlord's victims.

The government's top law officer, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, came to the court for the first time since his appointment to prosecute the first trial. He explained why Britain had decided to try the case, arguing that Zardad's crimes were so "merciless" and such "an affront to justice" that they could be tried in any country.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Tready told Zardad that his crimes were so serious that they transcended national boundaries. "Their gravity is demonstrated by the fact that most unusually a person who has committed them in another country can be tried and punished for them by the courts of this country."

He continued: "It is clear to me from the evidence that for a period of over three years you, as a powerful warlord, presided over a brutal regime of terror in areas under your control. "You represented the only real form of authority, law and government in the areas under your control and you grossly abused your power."

In both trials, evidence from Afghan witnesses - many in fear of their lives - was beamed into the British court via a video link from the UK embassy in Kabul. One witness said he was held for four months and beaten so frequently that his family failed to recognise him.

But Anthony Jennings QC, for the defence, had urged jurors to treat prosecution witnesses from Afghanistan with care and ask whether they had an axe to grind. Zardad himself told the court he had not tortured anyone but had given orders against torture.

Afghans hail UK sentence, mull war crimes body - By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, July 19 (Reuters) - Afghanistan hailed Tuesday's British court decision to jail a former Afghan commander for 20 years for torture and said it was considering forming a body to enable prosecution of anyone found guilty of war crimes.

The court passed sentence on Farayadi Sarwar Zardad one day after finding him guilty of torturing and terrorising innocent civilians in Afghanistan over a four-year period in the 1990s. Prosecutors said it was the first case of its kind in the world.

"There were plenty of evidence against him and we back and welcome the decision," Afghan Information Minister Sayed Makhdoom Rahin told Reuters.

Zardad is regarded as one of the notorious war criminals from the period of factional fighting which accompanied the mujahideen (holy warriors') defeat of a Soviet-backed regime in 1992.

Some military strongmen and high-ranking officials in President Hamid Karzai's government are also accused of serious rights abuses and war crimes during that period, and rights bodies have often called for their prosecution and punishment.

The Taliban government which ruled from 1996 until 2001 stands accused of widespread rights violations, while the U.S. forces that overthrew the fundamentalists and installed Karzai in power have also been accused of abusing suspects in detention.

Karzai's spokesman, Karim Rahimi, said the government would favour the trial of anyone found guilty of rights abuses. He said the government was considering establishing a fact-finding commission to look into abuses during the past quarter-century of war, invasion and and civil strife.

"This commission will talk to the tribal chiefs, clerics and those people who have fallen victims or have witnessed a crime. "The work of the commission will cover violations committed dating back to the past and present and will take serious steps to punish any one found guilty."

He said the investigations would be "inclusive", but could not say when the commission would be formed. He said it would take it a long time to complete its mission.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said the probe should also cover members of Afghanistan's former communist regime, which was backed by Soviet forces accused of killing countless civilians during their 10-year occupation until 1989.

"Zardad is not the only person who committed crimes," he said. "There are hundreds of communist generals, warlords and factional leaders who have committed crimes against humanity, who have harassed people in Afghanistan.

"Most of these criminals have fled and escaped to European countries and they are hiding there," he said. However, a Human Rights Watch report this month said that numerous high-level officials and advisers in Karzai's government were implicated in war crimes and rights abuses, and some were running in national elections set for Sept. 18.

The report slammed a culture of impunity and called on the government and the international community to prioritise efforts to prosecute those guilty of abuses.

The unprecedented case against Zardad -- his second trial after a jury failed to reach a verdict last year -- was the first in Britain to involve rights violations committed abroad and to have witnesses give evidence anonymously via a satellite link.

Zardad moved to Britain in 1998 seeking asylum and was running a south London pizza parlour when he was arrested in 2002 by anti-terrorism police after the case was brought to light by a BBC journalist.

Attempt foiled to destroy Sarobi dam

KABUL, July 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Security officials Sunday night foiled a terrorist attempt to hit the Sarobi dam, some 75 kilometres southeast of this central capital.

The Sarobi district police chief Sher Shah Yousafzai told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday unidentified terrorist had fitted 10 Russian-built SAM-21 missiles on a hill top in the Ozbin area, five kilometres from the district headquarters.

"The missiles were directed at the Sarobi dam to spread destruction and plunge the central capital in darkness," opined the police officer. The dam is fulfilling electricity needs of the capital and its surrounding areas.

There are two hydroelectricity dams in the area; Naghlo and Sarobi dams with the electricity generating capacity of 100 and 22 megawatts respectively. The electricity so generated is provided to the capital Kabul and its adjacent areas.

No one has been arrested so far in connection with the terrorist attempt, the police officer said. It is pertinent to recall that a patrolling party of the international peace keepers had come under attack in the same area on July 9.

Suicide bomber kills self in western Afghanistan, officials say

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) A bomber blew himself up near a district chief's house in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing only himself, officials said.

The unidentified man detonated explosives he was carrying outside the official's house in Herat province's capital, said the region's police chief Mohammed Ayub Salangi. The attacker died, but there were no other reports of injuries.

Dad Mohammed Rasa, an Interior Ministry official, confirmed the incident. The district chief was sitting on a motorcycle near his house in downtown Herat city at the time of the explosion early Tuesday, Salangi said.

The attack comes amid an unprecedented spate of bloodshed that has left more than 700 people dead in three months and threatens to sabotage three years of progress toward peace in Afghanistan that followed a U.S.-led invasion to oust the hardline Islamic Taliban regime.

Herat has been spared much of the violence and is considered one of the safest cities in the country. Suicide attacks are relatively unusual in Afghanistan.

The last such attack was on June 1, when a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber killed 20 people at the funeral of an anti-Taliban cleric in in the southern city of Kandahar, one of the worst terror attacks here since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. 

Woman Afghan election worker hurt in Taliban raid

KABUL, July 18 (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban gunmen stormed an Afghan voter registration office and fired in the air, wounding a woman election worker, a government spokesman said on Monday.

But the attack on Sunday in Kamdesh district of the northeastern province of Nooristan did not halt registration for the Sept. 18 parliamentary polls, interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.

Violence has surged in recent days in the Afghan countryside and dozens of people have been killed or wounded in the run-up to the elections, seen as the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.

"The woman is in stable condition," Mashal said, adding that the attack was carried out by enemies of "peace and stability", a term often used by government officials to describe Taliban militants and their ally al Qaeda.

Taliban officials could not be reached for comment. Members of the radical Islamic government ousted by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 have threatened to derail the polls, and warned Afghans against contesting or registering as voters.

They have exploded bombs outside voter registration offices, mainly in the south and east and killed election workers and candidates

Afghan police seize huge quantity of Kabul-bound explosives

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 19 (AFP) - Afghan police seized more than 850 kilograms (1,870 pounds) of explosives and thousands of fuses from a truck carrying vegetables to Kabul, police said Tuesday.

The explosives were discovered late Monday night when police acting on a tip-off searched the truck in Jalalabad city, some 110 kilometers (68 miles) east of the capital, said senior counter-terrorism police officer Ahmad Shah Himat.

"Police seized 876 kilograms (1,931 pounds) of explosives and 5,000 fuses placed in onion sacks in a vegetable truck on its way to Kabul," Himat told AFP.

Police have arrested two people who admitted they were paid to take the explosives from Jalalabad to Kabul, he said. "They confessed that they were paid to carry the explosives to Kabul and a group was to collect them in Kabul," he said. An investigation into the case was underway, Himat added.

Meanwhile a roadside bomb destroyed a Pakistani fuel tanker in eastern Kabul's Bagrami district on Monday, but no one was hurt in the incident, the interior ministry said.

"A fuel tanker with a Pakistani registration number plate was ... destroyed in a roadside bomb yesterday but there were no casualties," Interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.

In a separate incident in eastern Nangarhar province, intelligence agents on Monday arrested three Taliban suspects and seized rockets, landmines and assault rifles, an intelligence official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

"Three Taliban were arrested, one was wounded who managed to flee and three rockets, 20 AK-47 rifles, six land mines and lots of rounds were seized in an ambush by our men in Khogyani district of Nangarhar province yesterday," the official said.

In another incident the Afghan army arrested a local Taliban commander after an hour-long exchange of fire in Charchino district of southern Uruzgan province in which one Taliban fighter was killed, Afghan defense ministry spokesman general Mohammed Zahir Azimi said.

More than three years after their ouster by a US-led campaign, the Taliban have stepped up attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan ahead of parliamentary elections in September.

Two Taliban commanders arrested in Kandahar

KABUL, July 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghan government claimed on Monday two important Taliban commanders were arrested in the insurgency-plagued Kandahar province the other day.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, spokesman for the Defence Ministry General Zahir Azimi said Mullah Abdur Rahman and Mullah Naimatullah were captured in the Darra-i-Noor area of the Shah Wali Kot district by the Kandahar Army Corps No. 205. Azimi said secret documents had also been recovered from the two commanders during a search operation. In a similar operation in the Shehr-i-Safa district of the adjacent Kandahar province, security officials nabbed three suspected Taliban along with arms.

Zimbabweans killed in Afghan landmine explosion

HARARE, July 18 (Reuters) - Two Zimbabweans were killed in Afghanistan and one seriously injured when a landmine they were clearing exploded, the official Herald newspaper said on Monday.

The paper said the dead men, Fidelis Makwena and Moses Sibanda, were employed by Mine-Tech, a Zimbabwe company with a U.N. contract to clear mines planted during the conflict in Afghanistan.

"They successfully exhumed the landmine and when they were moving it for detonation, it blew up killing Makwena on the spot and injuring the other two, with Moses dying at the hospital," Mine-Tech managing director Max Dyck told the paper.

Formed in 1992 by former soldier Lionel Dyck, Mine-Tech has also operated in Angola, Mozambique, Iraq, Bosnia, Lebanon, Somalia, Eritrea and Kosovo.

Afghan polls: Japan announces $8m assistance

KABUL, July 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Japan has announced eight million dollars in assistance for the keenly-awaited Afghan parliamentary elections, seen as a formidable logistical challenge.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would utilise the assistance, said a press release issued by the Japanese Embassy here on Sunday. According to United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) spokesman Brown, $148 million are required for holding the much-delayed elections.

Of the estimated poll-related expenditure, different nations have so far pledged $105 million. It will be pertinent to recall that Tokyo had also contributed $8.2 million to holding of last year's presidential vote.

As many as 5,805 candidates are in the run for the lower house and provincial council polls, scheduled for September 18. Violence has escalated in the build-up to the first post-Taliban ballot.

Low tax ratio on imported goods harming local industry: Minister

KABUL, July 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Minister for Mines and Minerals Mir Mohammad Siddiq Sunday suggested increase in the ratio of taxes on imported goods to improve the country's tattering economy.

Speaking at a press conference here, the minister said the only way to encourage local entrepreneurs and boost domestic products was to increase the ratio of customs duties on imported goods. He said the local industry and investors were facing a threat due to the import of foreign goods.

The local industrialists often complain the inflow of foreign goods were ruining the local industry as well as harming the country's economy. They are in favour of taxing the imported goods.

Finance Ministry, however, say being hit by decades of conflict, domestic industry was unable to cater the country's rising demands. This is why more than 90 per cent goods are imported from abroad.

Press officer of the ministry Aziz Shams told Pajhwok Afghan News prices of commodities would go up if ratio of taxes was increased on imported goods. He said the ultimate sufferer will be the people of Afghanistan.

President of the Afghanistan International Chambers of Commerce (AICC) Hamid Qadri said hike in custom duty on imported goods was no solution to the problem. He suggested the government should provide relief to the local investors in terms of taxes on import of raw material and machinery.

$30m road project initiated in Helmand

LASHKARGAH, July 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Construction work on the 48 kilometres Lashkargah-Kandahar road kicked off the other day. The road, linking the provincial capital with the Herat-Kandahar Highway, is being constructed with $30 million assistance from the United States.

Haji Mohiuddin, secretary to the Helmand governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News the contract for the road construction had been assigned to an Indian company, which would complete it in six months.

Residents of the area have hailed initiation of the road construction work, saying it would solve their problems to a large extent. It will also help reduce the road fares.

A van driver, Bulbul said dilapidated condition of the road often caused problems to commuters as well as transporters. When completed, the road will reduce one and a half hour distance to 20 minutes besides curtailing fares.

• Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) update

Now that the “DD” phase of the DDR process is complete, the focus has shifted towards reintegration and will remain there until mid 2006 when the entire DDR process is expected to be complete.

To date 56,706 former Afghan Military Forces (AMF) combatants have been demobilized and the work of turning the former soldiers and officers into productive civilians continues at a high rate. To date, 54 ,995 personnel have entered the reintegration phase. The collection of heavy weapons is now complete, with 36,431 heavy and light weapons having been collected.

A ceremony took place this morning to award Afghan Military Forces commanders who have participated in the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration programme with a certificate of recognition and a financial redundancy package. This is the ninth ceremony of its kind. This programme, which uses Japanese funds, provides former commanders with a one-year stipend to help their return to civilian life.

This brings the number of commanders who have benefited from this financial assistance programme to 308.

[Among those at the ceremony were Deputy Minister of Defence Nooristani, the ambassador of Japan, UN Deputy Special Representative Filippo Grandi, Peter Babbington of the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme. Speeches were given praising the commanders for collaborating with DDR and recognizing their past contributions in fighting for this country.

A former deputy commander of the 9 th corps, Sahki Wasik, also spoke at the ceremony, thanking the international community and encouraging his fellow soldiers to embrace civilian life.]

• Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG)

With the Disbanding of Illegal Armed Groups programme, which is the new phase in broad disarmament, 7,737 weapons are verified as having been handed in so far.

• Employment Services FAQ’s answer returning refugees employment questions

With so many refugees returning to Afghanistan, many will be seeking work. To that extent the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has produced a circular with answers to questions on Employment Services Centres (ESC).

Information on who can use the service centres, the procedures used to apply for a job, and how to get help writing a resume are fully explained.

• JEMB press conference on public outreach activities

The Joint Electoral Management Body is holding a press conference tomorrow on public outreach activities during the coming election. These include a mobile cinema, mobile theatre, multi-media & grassroots civic education programmes. The press conference is tomorrow, Tuesday July 19 th, at 1:30pm, at the JEMB electoral compound on Jalalabad Road.

• Voter registration period for returnees now underway

Yesterday the JEMB launched its Voter Registration for Afghan refugees who are returning to Afghanistan. The voter registration period, which runs from July 17 th to September 8 th, is being done with UNHCR assistance.

Read the press release in English, Dari and Pashto.

• AIHRC Human Rights Workshop

As part of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission’s (AIHRC) three-year Action Plan, a five-day workshop was launched yesterday by the AIHRC regional office in Bamyan. The workshop aims at training 25 Afghan National Police trainers of the Bamyan Police Training Centre, National Security Directorate and traffic police personnel on human rights.

• Herat: National Solidarity Programme, construction and capacity building

Construction work has begun in the flood-prone area of Gozara district of Herat province - 16 culverts and a bridge are being built under the National Solidarity Programme to improve transportation links and diminish the effects of flooding.

Meanwhile, as part of the on-going efforts to strengthen the capacity of the local police in Herat, 16 police officers from the Passport Department undertook a three-day long training programme, supported by the German Police Project, on passport control and ID issuance.

Lastly, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Department of Education, has launched a capacity building program targeting primary school teachers in Herat. [The eight-day course will cover issues such as lesson preparation, child centered learning and violence and discipline. The introduction of Afghan literature, folklore and poetry into lessons is also encouraged to make learning more interesting for Afghan children.]

• Government task force for combating violence against women releases three-month work plan

The Inter-Ministerial Task Force on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (VAW) has recently (July 11 th) endorsed a three-month work plan to address violations of women’s rights in Afghanistan.

The work plan identifies deficiencies in Afghanistan’s justice system and mandates the action different agencies and government ministries must take by October 12 th, 2005 to improve the judicial and law enforcement systems.

Press statement by Professor Yakin Ertürk, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, its causes and consequences.

Good afternoon everybody and thank you for coming out to this press conference. Your presence here is very encouraging for me because the media coverage of issues directed towards violence against women is a major step towards raising awareness about this problem.

In the course of a ten-day visit to Afghanistan I have held meetings with government officials, members of the judiciary, prosecutors, police officers, doctors, and representatives of non-governmental organizations in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat, as well as with representatives of the numerous international organizations operating in Afghanistan. Most importantly, I have visited several prisons and shelters for women and received testimonies from women who are victims of gender specific violence. I would like to thank all those who have taken the time to share their knowledge, experience and ideas with me.

The three and a half years since the fall of the Taliban have seen considerable change in the legal and institutional framework concerning the situation of women in Afghanistan. Women have played a role in the Constitutional Loya Jirga of April 2003. The Constitution enshrines the principle of equal rights for men and women, obliges Afghanistan to respect international human rights, and reserves a certain amount of seats in the legislature to women. Afghanistan has ratified without reservations the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). A Ministry of Women’s Affairs was created and the current government counts three female ministers. At the local level as well, women occupy important government posts. In everyday life, many girls are back in school and women are, once again, participating in the work force.

Since its creation in 2003, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has been a forceful advocate for human rights throughout the country. A few but dedicated women’s organizations are working diligently for women’s rights. The Government appears committed to securing that the progress made is permanent and to expanding on it.

The steps forward achieved over the last years must not, however, distract us from the fact that violence against women remains dramatic in Afghanistan in its intensity and pervasiveness, in public and private spheres of life. The following observations are only preliminary in nature, and address a few of the forms in which women are subject to gender specific violence in Afghanistan. I will submit a more extensive report to the UN Commission on Human Rights next spring.

Most of my interlocutors pointed to forced and child marriages as the primary source of violence against women. In addition to being in themselves serious forms of violence, forced and child marriages in combination with polygamy considerably increase the likelihood that women will be subjected to violence within the family, including sexual violence by significantly older males.

For the great majority of girls and women there is no alternative to enduring the violence they encounter. Unaccompanied women have no place in the public space, and are automatically suspected of being engaged in sexual offences. If they turn to the police or the judiciary for protection and redress, they are likely to face abuse and be handed back to the abusive environment. The governmental authorities and tribal councils reportedly prefer to obtain a commitment from the perpetrators that the abuse will end, while in only an exceedingly small fraction of cases will any sanction be imposed on the perpetrators of domestic violence. Many of the women in the prisons have run away from home and been charged with adultery. Once a girl or women has spent a night away from family control, this might constitute a dead end in her life. The stigma attached thereto often makes her return impossible, as she is either refused or accepted only to face punishment, often death.

Poverty, lack of education and the damage caused by decades of conflict are often indicated as the prime causes for this state of affairs. Indeed, Afghan society has suffered through years of turmoil and uprootedness. In the process, the rule of power was reinforced, putting those with the least power – women and children – at risk of extreme forms of human rights violations. Giving little girls away for bride money and exchanging daughters to settle disputes are just some practices condemning girls to a life of despair. The lack of safety nets and systems of accountability has normalized the use of violence to enforce those practices.

While reconstruction and development, economic empowerment of women, education and awareness raising can be expected to reduce the level of violence against women in the medium and long term, action has to be taken now to protect women, to save lives. The following are some measures that appear feasible in the short term:

• prioritizing the elimination of violence against women in public policy;
• launching media campaigns to inform the public that forced and child marriages violate fundamental precepts of Islam;
• clearly establishing in the criminal law that those involved in the organization of the “marriage” of a girl-child commit a crime and should be subject to prosecution and punishment;
• clearly instructing the police and prosecutor’s offices that girls and women who escape situations of domestic violence must not be returned to their families, unless their safety can really be ensured;
• creating, expanding and strengthening safe-havens for women at risk;
• strengthening the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Human Rights Office of the Ministry of Interior, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, and other entities mandated to protect women’s rights;
• linking donor support to human rights and the protection of women.

I urge both the Afghan authorities and the international community to recognize that sacrificing respect for human rights, in particular women’s rights, to the claims of stability not only falls short of the United Nations’ founding principles, but is also politically shortsighted. Stability in Afghanistan can only be secured if the social fabric is rewoven from the grassroots. This in turn requires an end to the state of violence and impunity, of which the pervasive, intense violence experienced by Afghan women at all levels is a central but neglected element. The present time constitutes a unique window of opportunity that should not be missed.

Biographical Note :

Yakin Ertürk is a Professor of Sociology at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. She has been serving as the Special Rapporteur on violence against women since August 2003. In this capacity, she visited El Salvador, Guatemala, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Darfur, the Russian Federation including North Caucasus, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Mexico. In 2006 she plans to visit countries in Africa and Western Europe.

Questions & Answers

Question: You mentioned several violations. Can you underline some of the very serious acts of violence against women in Afghanistan? That is the first question. My second question is the fact you may have talked to different women candidates. In the last several weeks they have expressed their concern regarding their security and also there are some traditional problems where they cannot openly campaign in public. Don’t you think the election players and the United Nations should have had additional measures for the women candidates to ensure their full participation while running for office?

Special Rapporteur: I will talk about elections in a moment. With regards to violence, yes of course I will elaborate in my report, but I think we all know what violence is, from verbal violence to psychological violence to very severe forms of physical violence. And we also hear your reports on cases of women who are condemned to be killed by local councils. There was the situation of Ameena, not too long ago, who was executed – she was stoned to death or beaten to death because there was a fatwa by the local authorities for her murder. This is the context in which women are living their lives and of course the uprootedness due to years of conflict in this country, not only uprootedness of values, but physical uprootedness, has made the situation far more complex being internally this place, especially refugees. There are all forms of safety nets stopped to function. There are no protective mechanisms anymore. In all societies we generally attribute problems of violence against women to tradition. But traditions and cultures have very positive elements which provide protection for the weak women and children. But the process that Afghanistan has gone through, I think has destroyed all these mechanisms and women have become totally at the hands of those who hold power. And of course men have also suffered from these atrocities. But if women and children are the least able to protect themselves when the rule of power dictates, I think this is the context in which I will try and identify. In Herat you are probably aware of the situation of self-immolation. This is a form of violence. These girls are burning themselves to death because they have no other option in life to escape violence. They are committing suicide in order to escape a life full of violence, not only from their husbands or fathers, but sometimes even by mothers-in-law, surprisingly. So being women does not free one from exercising violence unfortunately. It’s the different power relationships that individual women find themselves in that put them in extreme forms of violence. And I’m told by many authorities that there are strong economic factors underlying this. I was just told at a government meeting a while ago that girls are married off to families who in turn use them to sell their blood, or use them as prostitutes. These are forms of violence. While we can understand the underlying causes, I don’t think we can tolerate it. We must attack it until the underlying causes change.

Now with regard to the election, of course my mandate is not directly relevant to the elections, but I have met some candidates and have heard such claims. Now there are those who are mandated to ensure security and I call on them to do their job.

Question: Have you spoken to local or rural women? If so can you tell us any of the stories of anyone who has been talking in terms of violence against them?

Special Rapporteur: Unfortunately I didn’t go beyond the centres of Kandahar and Herat. I was not able to go to the countryside simply because my mission is restricted to a very short period. But I did meet many women in three areas. I did visit women in prison, so I got many testimonies and also I visited the shelters. And so I have large numbers of testimonies from women and girls who have been direct victims of violence. And I will describe some of these issues, in depth, in my report.

Question: Can you not describe one for us?

Special Rapporteur: I will give you one very dramatic example which affected me tremendously. This is an eight-year-old girl, and everybody who has been hearing about this from me for days, and I will keep on talking about this girl and follow up on it after I leave Afghanistan, she is under protection now. She was sold by her mother at the age of six on the pretext of marriage. I’m saying under the pretext of marriage because neither your Civil Law nor the Sheria can accept that a six-year-old girl is marriageable. This girl and others like her that I have talked to, who were not lucky enough to end up in a protective area, are abused physically as well as sexually. Not only by the designated husband, but until the designated husband grows up, other males in the family may abuse her. This little girl is lucky in that early on she managed to be put under protection. But now the issue is what will happen to her. I spoke to the Chief Justice who told me that she will be placed with a family where her safety will be ensured and when she becomes 15 she will be asked whether she agrees with this marriage or not. And if she says no, the marriage will be annulled. I don’t think this is good enough. Because until she’s 15, this girl’s life will be irreversibly damaged. So this is one vulnerability in which physical, psychological, and sexual violence awaits these girls. So it is a form of enslavement isn’t it?

Perhaps I can give you one more example to illustrate the diversity. The situation of widows is also very precarious. One woman told me that when her husband died, her brother-in-law confiscated the house that was legally owned by the husband. She and her three children are now in a very difficult situation because the brother-in-law and his family moved into this house and they are constantly beating her, insulting her, and trying to force her out of the house and she has no where to go or no way to sustain her livelihood and her children. So these are just some examples of the vulnerabilities some women are facing.

Question: My question relates to the previous years of civil wars. In the previous years of civil wars, before and during the Taliban, in Kabul there was a lot of abuse against women, do you have any action or recovery for those past crimes?

Special Rapporteur: That is a good question. I must say that I did not receive any information to indicate that there is a sufficient attack to deal with past crimes, although I’m sure there are things being done. Most of my meetings dealt with the current situation and how we can move forward. But that is a very valid question and unfortunately I don’t have a clear answer to that. But maybe I can just add to that that many people who I spoke to expressed a great deal of disillusionment and discontent that many of these past criminals are now living with impunity and some of them are even holding very legitimate posts and are running for the Parliament. So this seems to be a major problem and I don’t know exactly what the government program is in dealing with these issues, to be honest.

Question: Would you say that the violence against women is based on the ambiguity of the rule of law in Afghanistan? What kind of specific strategy do you propose for the government of Afghanistan because what we see from the three years that the national support to strengthen the rule of law in Afghanistan looks very weak, so due to the violations of women’s rights and nothing has been developed in the form of the laws to support women’s rights. What can be done, through the United Nations, to support this kind of activity?

Special Rapporteur: Well this is precisely what my report will try to tackle so it would be very difficult for me to give you a comprehensive answer to that. But given the overall destruction of institutions, values, etc, in this country, we need to have clear strategic and practical objectives defined. And our strategic objective is of course guided by human rights principles and our practical objectives are guided or constrained by the realities in this country, but our choices as UN, international, government, should be to ensure that our practical interventions are devised in view or our strategic objections, so that while we are delivering immediate interventions and immediate services, we create new contradictions in society which can open up new space to enlarge the ability of strengthening the system not only the state system but also at the very grass roots level. Building a state means not only creating institutions and creating citizens. This is the major challenge. How do we develop our programs so that we contribute to both the development of state mechanisms as well as the development of individual citizens who relate to their government in a very specific way? So this is a general rule of thumb that I can talk, but I think we need to elaborate this general perspective within the mandate of each organization.

Question: Most of the violations taking place against women, especially in rural areas, are based on customs. How optimistic are you that you can reform these customs, especially as there have not been any great changes in the situation of women outside of the cities and in rural areas in Afghanistan over the last three years?

Special Rapporteur: I have a different approach to this issue. Customs and traditions change and are dynamic. I don’t think that the problem is really about customs. ‘Whose custom?’ I would ask you, and who speaks on behalf of custom or determines what custom is – the one who holds the power. We need to demystify this idea that violations are embedded in custom. Of course, customary practices and so forth develop over time and gain a life of their own and then we start calling them culture and custom and tradition. But who is sustaining them, who is protecting these norms. It is not the ones who are victimized and yet they are part of custom and tradition as well. In Afghanistan I think we can deal with these traditional norms that have gained a life of their own. But what seems to be a major obstacle is that those who hold the power to speak on behalf of culture say ‘this is our tradition so death to you who have violated our custom’.

In all parts of the world women’s subordination has been caused by unequal power relationships which we call patriarchy. And under conflict situations and extreme underdevelopment, patriarchy makes power relations more acute. How do we deal with it? How has the world dealt with it – it is a struggle of humanity for centuries to out smart the Zalim. I think we just have to hit it head on.

Question: Both the international community and the Afghan government have shown themselves to be either incapable or unwilling to defend human rights in general and that includes men’s rights. There are a number of known warlords running for parliament. In this context what practical measures could be taken to ‘open space’ as you suggested, for change at the grass roots level.

Special Rapporteur: I think the problem that you are posing does not have practical measures – what practical measures are there for warlords? Although at the grass roots level I have been informed about some programmes that various agencies are implementing. The FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] this morning talked about a programme they have to empower widows. These are of course fragmented projects and also the rural reconstruction ministry has a National Solidarity Project that has a lot of potential if implemented properly. But these in themselves do not solve the problem no doubt. But through such interventions you can provide alternatives to people who have none. And also give them some options including their livelihoods. So these are some practical measures that I found ongoing at the moment. On another level related to women’s issues – I think the protective interventions such as prisons offering literature courses to women. Although these might seem like trivial things that do not add up to anything, do we – and by we I mean the UN agencies – do we have the power and authority to address the more global issues. I don’t think so. Given the realities, our practical interventions have to be very limited in nature. But always keep in mind the strategic objectives of opening new space through these practices. So creating contradictions, using dialectics that is an incredible force in opening new space in society.

Question: You touched upon the case of Ameena, which was the first public execution after the Taliban. More than several months since this incident, and nothing has happened. If it had been at the time of the Taliban and a woman was publicly executed, the whole world would have criticized the government. What has the follow up from the government, and the United Nations in particular, been?

Special Rapporteur: Good question, keep asking this. From my side, I am following this case and I have written to the government of Afghanistan asking about this case along with two other cases. I will keep asking them but I haven’t received a response yet. I have asked the Minister of the Interior who told me that in all the three cases, including Ameena’s, they have apprehended suspects and the cases are with the prosecutor’s office. We should keep asking these questions.

Question: A woman was publicly executed. Would you comment on this?

Special Rapporteur: There is no excuse we cannot toleratepublic execution or private execution. The violence has to come to an end. There is no reason under the sun that can legitimize any of these acts, if the government is going to gain legitimacy and credibility it has to find ways of dealing with these issues. Because we cannot have a government that says I have no authority there. This is a contradiction in terms. This is not what the government is saying no doubt, but its institutions have to be reinforced and developed and law enforcement is an absolute must. We need legislative reforms as well, but even with the existing laws they have to be enforced and perpetrators have to be prosecuted. Unless this is done, the confidence in this whole reconstruction process will be jeopardized. And we cannot guarantee that the international community can be there to sustain stability. So I am outraged.

Question: How do you verify the participation of women in the parliament? Are there enough women and if they go to the parliament can they defend their rights there?

Special Rapporteur: In my personal opinion, quantitative representation of women in parliament is only a surface solution. Although I welcome it, the problem doesn’t end there. This is why I am a little bit worried that everybody is focused on the election and the idea of having more women there. Yes this is important, but the main problems are the source of the problems. So we should not be just satisfied with 100 women in the parliament – this is only one indicator. Generally by international standards they say a critical mass of women in parliament, which is around 30%, is needed for them to be effectively involved. But I know of cases, particularly in underdeveloped countries, where through the policies of governments they were able to achieve a critical mass of women in parliament. However because women were not empowered and because mentalities had not changed, these women were not given enough space to operate. So whilst encouraging women in parliament in Afghanistan is important, particularly from a symbolic point of view, women’s empowerment and changing the way that people perceive women is very important. They all have to go together I think.

With Pakistan back in spotlight, Musharraf pleads moderation

Islamabad (AFP) - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, whose country is back in the spotlight since the London bombings, has urged a "jihad" against extremism and called on Pakistanis to reject terror.

As new closed-circuit videotape showed three of the four suspected attackers had been in Pakistan, Musharraf moved to shift some of the focus away from his country by reiterating his condemnation of all forms of terrorism.

"Terrorism in the name of Islam -- launching bomb attacks in London in the name of Islam -- is not Islam," said Musharraf, a key ally in the US "war on terror" since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"The entire nation has to reject extremism," he told a youth convention here late Monday. "Stand up and launch a jihad (holy war) against extremism -- and jihad for peace, brotherhood and unity in the society."

Three of the four bombers were Britons of Pakistani origin and visited the country last year, which has put Pakistan under renewed pressure since at least 56 people were killed in the July 7 bombings in the British capital.

Analysts said Musharraf, who has waged an often unpopular campaign against extremism in a country where deep-rooted militancy is not hard to find, was keen to underline his emphasis on moderation in the wake of those attacks.

"It is primarily because of the London incidents that he has re-emphasised what he had been saying a couple of months ago," said political analyst Hasan Askari. "It is the reassertion of old policy in the new scenario."

Musharraf last week ordered a police crackdown on extremist elements as investigators probe whether the bombers met with any Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups during their stay in Pakistan.

"He has drawn a distinction on these elements who neither represent Islam, nor can be tolerated as claiming to be Muslims," said Riffat Hussain, professor of strategic studies at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University.

"Musharraf, through his well crafted message to isolate these elements, has tried to galvanise the support of the vast silent majority which abhors terrorism," Hussain said.

Officials here have said that a small fraction of the country's estimated 10,000 madrassas or religious schools are breeding grounds for extremism, and Musharraf has been campaigning since early 2003 for their reform.

In his address on Monday, he said Pakistani youth should back his efforts to push for moderation and clamp down on religious extremism. "The youth, who are the future leaders, should stand up against the malaise and support the government's campaign in ridding the society of the malaise," Musharraf said.

But analyst Askari cautioned that extremism had become largely entrenched in Pakistani society. "The roots of militancy are very deep. It is a socially created state of mind," he told AFP. "Our textbooks do not preach tolerance or emphasise democratic values."

Police confiscated hundreds of publications, audio and video cassettes and CDs considered to fan sectarian hatred, officials said adding that some two dozen shopkeepers had been detained in a crackdown continuing since Friday.

Police in the conservative North West Frontier Province have also been directed to seize objectionable materials. The government also barred members of extremist groups from contesting local government elections to be held next month, officials said.

Police arrested Abdul Ghaffar Ghaffari, the district chief of the banned Sunni militant outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan from the central city of Multan to stop him from contesting the polls, local police chief Sikandar Hayat said.

Pakistan destroys arms bought from tribesmen near Afghanistan border

Peshawar (AFP) - Pakistan's security forces have destroyed a large number of weapons bought under a "buy back" programme from tribesmen in the tribal districts near the Afghan border, the military said. "The weapons were smashed by using heavy bulldozers and welding equipment to make them permanently unserviceable," a military statement said on Monday.

The weapons destroyed near the northwest city of Peshawar included rocket-launchers, recoilless rifles, mortars and Russian-made light machine guns, it said.

The lawless tribal belt was flooded with thousands of weapons worth millions of dollars during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The destroyed weapons were taken from tribesmen in North and South Waziristan regions under a "buy-back programme" from January to June this year.

Troops hunting militants with suspected links to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban killed 17 in a clash in the rugged North Waziristan border tribal area on Sunday.

Pakistan, a key ally in the US "war on terror", has deployed about 70,000 troops along its border with southeastern Afghanistan to track down foreign militants in the tribal area.

Taliban attacks in the southeast have surged in recent months ahead of Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary elections in September. Al-Qaeda and Taliban members fled to the deeply religious region after the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001 by US-led attacks.

In a series of operations since last year, Pakistani forces have destroyed hideouts and training camps of militants linked to Al-Qaeda and killed hundreds of rebels, officials say. About 250 soldiers have also died.

India praises 'historic' US deal – BBC

India has hailed a nuclear co-operation deal with the United States, seen as a major shift in Washington's policy. President George W Bush says he will ask Congress to lift sanctions on India that will give Delhi access to civilian nuclear technology. The deal came during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is to deliver a speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday.

The US tightened nuclear curbs on India after Delhi's weapons tests in 1998. The BBC's Brajesh Upadhyay in Washington says Indian officials are calling the agreement a major triumph for Mr Singh, who is on his first official visit to the US.

A joint statement issued after Monday's meeting between President Bush and Mr Singh said that the US would work to achieve full civil nuclear energy co-operation with India.

Mr Singh's spokesman, Sanjay Baru, told the BBC: "It's a historic declaration and all the nuclear sanctions imposed on India have been lifted." Delhi had been anxious to strike a deal on ways to share nuclear technology to help meet its growing energy needs.

The deal was agreed despite India's continued refusal to sign an international nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. The joint statement said: "As a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology, India should acquire the same benefits and advantages as other states."

However, US undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns insisted the deal "does not mean that US is now recognising India as a nuclear weapons state". "That's a separate matter. India is not part of the NPT." A senior US official said India had asked for such recognition but the US refused because of the treaty issue.

Observers say the deal is an important shift in US foreign policy and shows Washington is comfortable that Delhi is committed to preventing proliferation, despite not signing the treaty. The deal has already sparked some opposition in Congress.

Democrat representative, Ed Markey, said: "We cannot play favourites, breaking the rules of the non-proliferation treaty, to favour one nation at the risk of undermining critical international treaties on nuclear weapons." Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "This is the triumph of great power politics over non-proliferation policy."

Later on Tuesday, Mr Singh is to be afforded the rare honour of addressing a joint meeting of Congress - only the eighth foreign leader to do so in five years. At a White House dinner on Monday, President Bush told Mr Singh: "The relationship between our two nations has never been stronger."

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]