The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, London

Foreign Secretary David Miliband denied on Sunday that the international community was failing in its mission in Afghanistan.

"Our true missiont has been to use military power to create the space within which Afghan institutions can become strong enough to resist the Taliban. That mission is certainly not impossible," Miliband wrote in the Sunday Times.

Responding to criticism in the newspaper of Britain's role in Afghanistan, Miliband denied that Taliban insurgents were getting the upper hand over President Hamid Karzai's administration.

He said the majority of Taliban activity was concentrated in 10 percent of Afghanistan's districts, home to only six percent of the population, and he rejected suggestions that the capital, Kabul, was encircled.

"The Taliban lack the capacity to hold ground," Miliband wrote.

Some of the insecurity stemmed from "growing criminality", including the trade in heroin, Miliband said.

He hailed the decision by NATO defence ministers to allow their forces to do more to support the Afghan security forces in targeting drug facilities.

The fact that 18 provinces in Afghanistan were drug-free this year, up from 13 last year, was "progress. Not enough, but progress all the same."

On the vexed issue of the tribal areas of Pakistan which he said were used to launch insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, Miliband said new Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had promised to make cooperation with Afghanistan a priority "and he has been true to his word".