Official: Afghanistan still troubled by terrorists, drugs and warlords

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday met with the chief of the U.S. Central Command and told him that the country's three main problems remain terrorists, drug trafficking and provincial warlords.

Gen. John Abizaid, whose command territory includes Afghanistan and Iraq, met for about 45 minutes with Karzai at the Presidential Palace in the capital, Kabul, to discuss the military situation in the country, deputy presidential spokesman Hamed Elmi told the Associated Press.

The closed meeting also was attended by Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-American who formally took up his position as the new U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan on Saturday. Khalilzad, an ethnic Pashtun, previously served as President Bush's special envoy.

Later, in a speech on state-run television, Khalilzad said he was determined to help Afghanistan rebuild itself and join forces with neighboring countries such as Pakistan in the global war against terrorism.

Abizaid "briefed President Karzai about the security situation in Afghanistan, saying it has improved, but that U.S. forces continue to follow terrorists and attack them," Elmi said.

Two years after the hardline Taliban regime was driven out of Kabul, 11,600 U.S.-led coalition forces are fighting terrorist cells in Afghanistan. An additional 5,700 international peacekeepers patrol Kabul.

The spokesman said Karzai told the general that Afghanistan's three major problems remain terrorist attacks, a booming drug trade and powerful warlords who control many of the provinces.

The United Nations recently reported that poppy cultivation has skyrocketed in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, making it the source of about three-quarters of the world's opium. Opium is used to make heroin and morphine.

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