AFGHANISTAN: The Afghan interim leader has called on the US to continue military activity in Afghanistan until terrorism is stamped out. But Mr Hamid Karzai said he was worried about the growing number of civilian casualties.
"We want to finish terrorists in Afghanistan - we want to finish them completely . . . But we must also make sure our civilians do not suffer," he said in an interview with the New York Times.
The new Afghan leader said he planned to discuss the issue of civilian deaths due to US military bombing with American officials this week.
Mr Karzai's interview with the paper came on the wake of reports that US warplanes killed more than 100 people in a weekend raid in eastern Afghanistan.
The Afghan Defence Ministry has said the bombings should end as soon as possible. The Foreign Minister, Mr Abdullah Abdullah, said on Sunday the campaign will go on "for as long as it takes to finish the terrorists". US forces have been carrying out operations against remnants of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and Taliban fighters still on the run.
Mr Karzai said he is planning to discuss the weekend US bombing with elders from the affected part of the country, and has sent a helicopter to bring them to Kabul.
The newspaper quoted Mr Karzai as saying that, while he supported actions against Taliban leadership, low-level Taliban, or "common people" recruited by force, would be released from prisons. "The bad guys" and foreigners who fought with the Taliban would stay in jail, he added.
Prisoners are being held in Afghanistan by opposition forces who seized power as the Taliban crumbled under US bombing that began on October 7th.
Mr Karzai said lawlessness on the country's highways made it difficult to import goods and deliver aid. He had also raised concerns with Mr Yunus Qanooni, the Interior Minister, about Northern Alliance behaviour towards Pashtun leaders on their way to Kabul, including the theft of cars.
Healing Afghanistan's shattered economy was "as important as security", Mr Karzai said. The new government was working to establish a customs system and a currency policy, and to choose a central bank head.