West stresses need to back Afghan government

Western nations on the UN Security Council Thursday pledged new support for Afghanistan's beleaguered government 10 years after the launch of the war on the Taliban as Russia railed against Nato's "ineffective" tactics. High profile attacks on embassy compounds and the assassination of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani have put the international coalition on the defensive and raised new doubts about Afghan security capabilities.
The United States, Britain, France and Germany all acknowledged the growing militant threat, but told a Security Council debate on Afghanistan that the attacks should not undermine support for President Hamid Karzai's much criticised government.
Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said despite the killing last week of Rabbani, who had headed a national council leading talks with the Talibani, the peace effort will continue. "I want to reassure the council that despite this national loss, our reconciliation process will continue," Rassoul told the 15-member council.
But he warned that "the success of the transition process will depend on the continuous support of the international community." US ambassador Susan Rice said the United States "will continue to work in support of the Afghan government and the Afghan people to end the insurgency, pursue justice against those who fund, direct, and carry out the violence, and realise a peaceful future for all Afghans."
Other envoys gave a similar message. But Russia criticised the international coalition. "The elimination of Osama bin Laden has not led to the anticipated breakthrough," Russia's deputy ambassador Igor Pankin said of the US killing of the al Qaeda leader in May.
Highlighting the growing number of deaths of coalition and Afghan troops, Pankin said there was "an alarming situation" in areas now controlled by Afghan forces and that Central Asian states were worried about the "spillover" from Afghanistan. "This is a consequence of the ineffective anti-terrorist activities of Nato in Afghanistan - that are not leading to killing of fighters but pushing them out from the primary southern regions to the north and neighbouring states," Pankin said.
China said it was "seriously concerned" about rising casualties in Afghanistan, while another key neighbour, India, said "security gains are still tenuous." After next month's 10th anniversary of the US-led operation to overthrow the Taliban, diplomatic focus will turn to international conferences in Istanbul and Bonn on Afghanistan's future.