NATO Chief Vows Afghan Commitment

ISLAMABAD - NATO's secretary general on Wednesday argued against a retreat from Afghanistan, saying the duration of the international troop presence would be "driven not by the calendar, but by commitment."

Anders Fogh Rasmussen met Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad to discuss the Afghan situation.

He said the troop presence would be determined by the security situation and that NATO "will not leave Afghanistan prematurely."

"Taliban will return and create a safe haven for terrorists and Afghanistan will become a launch pad against North America and Europe," he said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday set 2014 as the target for his forces to take over security control, for which Rasmussen promised to train Afghan recruits.

More than 100,000 international troops from the US and NATO are in Afghanistan and domestic pressure is mounting on individual nations to bring the soldiers back.

Rasmussen said international presence was also good for Pakistan, which has been affected by Taliban and al-Qaeda militants on its territory.

"We will not leave behind a vacuum and create and unstable situation in your neighbourhood," he added.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the country sought no role for itself in Afghanistan but would help to create peace if asked by the Afghans to do so.

Pakistan has considerable influence on the Taliban through its military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, which nurtured them during the war against the former Soviet Union and is blamed for providing sanctuary to the insurgents fighting NATO troops.

But the country is also a major ally of the US and Western powers, and is believed to be secretly trying to secure a deal between the Karzai government and Taliban to end violence.