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Telegraph | News | Hurry up with extra troops, pleads Karzai:

"President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan urged Nato leaders yesterday to "please hurry" and bolster troop numbers in his country, saying elections planned for September were in peril.

"The Afghan people need that security today, not tomorrow. Come sooner than September and provide Afghan men and women with the chance to vote without fear," he said.

His appeal came a day after Nato agreed to boost its troop numbers from 6,500 to about 10,000 to improve security during the ballot, which has already been postponed once because of Taliban and al-Qa'eda violence.

But the offer of help was hedged. A large part of the increase is a standby force based outside Afghanistan.

The permanent increase is likely to be only a few hundred soldiers sent as "reconstruction teams" in provincial cities as the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) moves beyond Kabul.

An Afghan woman registers to vote in the country's first elections

Afghanistan has two foreign-dominated military forces. The peacekeepers of Isaf, a third of them German, are heavily outnumbered by an American-led combat force of 20,000, based mainly in the restive south and east.

Mr Karzai said the modest Nato gesture was a "welcome step". But in Kabul, officials were less diplomatic. The defence ministry spokesman, Gen Zahir Azimy, said: "This is not sufficient. We expect more"

Citing general improvements in security, Mr Karzai claimed that an upsurge in attacks against election organisers and civilians carrying registration cards was a sign of the extremists' "desperation". More than half the estimated eight million electorate had signed up and he hoped that two thirds of voters would register, he said.

But he faces severe problems. To the south and east, the Taliban are regrouping and killing anyone associated with central government.........

To the north and west, the warlords are digging in with the millions of dollars earned from the opium trade. Caught in the middle are the Afghans who have lost patience with their leader. They have even nicknamed the American-backed Mr Karzai 'Shah Shuja', a reference to the 19th century Afghan king who was installed by the British then deposed.

The security problems have worsened because the outside world has failed to fulfill promises to rebuild the country, said Barbara Stapleton, the director of the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief, a charity. 'Even if Nato sends its troops we have an insurgent Taliban threat, a narco-mafia threat, warlordism, and a highly militarised society. How this will be overturned by the current expansion is not clear,' she said."

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