New U.S. Envoy In Afghanistan To Assess Security

Famed for negotiating the 1995 Dayton accord that ended the war in Bosnia, Holbrooke is a newcomer to South Asian politics.

U.S. President Barack Obama's new envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan met key ministers in the Afghan capital on Friday, two days after Taliban attacks in the city demonstrated how their insurgency is advancing.

Wednesday's attacks on government buildings showed how hard it is for the Afghan government and its Western backers to ensure security, even with dozens of police checkpoints in Kabul and armed guards at the entrance of every state office.

Holbrooke met the Afghan ministers of defence and the interior, the head of the national intelligence agency and President Hamid Karzai's security adviser at the heavily guarded U.S. embassy, an Afghan government official said.

He was due to meet Karzai later in the day, said the official, who declined to be named.

Holbrooke, who arrived in Kabul after four days in Pakistan, has so far been tight-lipped during his first trip to the region in his new role as Obama's point man on a conflict that has become a U.S. foreign policy priority.

Famed for negotiating the 1995 Dayton accord that ended the war in Bosnia, Holbrooke is a newcomer to South Asian politics.

Ahead of a 10-day trip that will end in India, Holbrooke admitted Afghanistan would be a "tougher challenge than Iraq".

NO PURELY MILITARY SOLUTION

Top of the list of problems is how to stem the Taliban insurgency, which has forced a stalemate on international forces in the south and spread to the outskirts of the capital.

The insurgent presence so close to Kabul has spilled over into a crimewave in the city, analysts say, further undermining public faith in authorities most already view as corrupt.

Afghan security forces have set up ever more checkpoints inside Kabul and roads near Western embassies are blocked with high concrete barriers, snarling traffic elsewhere. But still the Taliban bombers manage to get through.

Eight Taliban gunmen, each wired with a suicide vest, penetrated the cordon on Wednesday and simultaneously assaulted three government buildings in what analysts said appeared to be an attempt to mimic the Mumbai attacks in November.

Police shot dead three of the attackers before they could enter the offices and Afghan security forces swiftly stormed the buildings and killed the rest, blunting the effect of what could have turned into a protracted hostage standoff.

Nevertheless, the attackers killed 26 people.

"Kabul is a free and open city so it's really very difficult to defend every aspect ... people wander freely with these little suicide vests disguised under their clothing and they're hard to detect," said U.S. forces spokesman Colonel Greg Julian.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday the transit via Russia of non-military cargoes for NATO-led forces fighting in Afghanistan would start within days.

The United States has been pressing Moscow to provide it with transit routes to supply Western troops after militants destroyed truck convoys on a route from Pakistan.

Lavrov said on Wednesday Moscow was also considering offering military aircraft to help supply NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, in an overture to a new U.S. administration it hopes will be more receptive to its demands.

Washington is considering whether to almost double its troops in Afghanistan to some 60,000, but says there is no purely military solution and more must be done to bring development and effective government to a country scarred by nearly 30 years of war.

Complicating that task is the diplomatic conundrum of trying to ease the rivalry between Pakistan and India which helps fuel the conflict in Afghanistan, accommodate regional powers Iran and Russia, and maintain an alliance of more than 40 nations.