Russia and Afghanistan urged the international community today to redouble efforts to keep in check the fundamentalist Taliban movement a year after it was ousted from Kabul.
Afghan Foreign Minister Mr Abdullah Abdullah, speaking after talks in Moscow, said despite Afghan and international public opinion rejecting any return of the Taliban, extremist elements were still lurking in the country.
"If insufficient help and support are extended, some elements could be in a position to create certain difficulties or hinder Afghanistan's political development," he told a news conference alongside Russian Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov. "In other words, the anti-terrorist coalition has not yet completed its mission. There is much to be done in order to do away with terrorism."
It was vital, he said, "to restore Afghanistan's economy and resolve its social problems". That meant ensuring farmers grew proper crops and did not resume the lucrative opium harvest.
Mr Ivanov called for intensified support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's interim administration, put in place after a US-led military operation ousted the Taliban. "It is vital to offer real help to the interim government, not only in fighting this or that extremist organisation, but in rebuilding the country and creating real state structures to ensure that there can be no return to the past," he said.
The ministers said they had discussed Afghan calls to extend the mandate of the 22-nation international security force (ISAF) beyond Kabul.
British government sources said on Friday that Britain and the United States planned to deploy a team of 40 to 60 reconstruction and security specialists in order to extend the international security umbrella to other Afghan cities.