Ahmadinejad criticises NATO troops, mocks Gates

KABUL, Mar 10 (AFP): Iran's outspoken president Wednesday criticised Western troops as an obstacle to peace in Afghanistan and mocked the US defence secretary during their overlapping visits to the war-torn country.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, paying his first visit to Afghanistan since he and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai were re-elected last year in controversial polls, took issue with the policies of arch-foe Washington.

"We do not see the presence of foreign military forces in Afghanistan as a solution for peace in Afghanistan," Ahmadinejad told a joint news conference with Karzai.

The United States has spearheaded a major troop surge in a last-ditch bid to end an eight-year Taliban-led insurgency against more than 120,000 NATO and US-led troops supporting Karzai's government.

"Our policy is full support for the Afghan people and Afghan government and reconstruction of Afghanistan and we will continue this support in the future," said the visiting Iranian leader.

His visit overlapped with one by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, in Afghanistan to review the surge of US and NATO troops set to bring their numbers to 150,000 by August.

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called on US-led troops to leave Afghanistan, which has close ethnic and religious ties to Iran, while US officials have long accused Iran of maintaining links to Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan.

Asked about Gates's accusation Iran of playing a double game in the war-torn country, Ahmadinejad responded: "The question is what are you (Gates and troops) doing here in this region?"

On the third day of his latest visit to Afghanistan, Gates on Wednesday toured a training centre for Afghan soldiers on the outskirts of the capital.

"We think Afghanistan should have good relations with all of its neighbours. But we also want all of Afghanistan's neighbors to play an up front game when dealing with the government of Afghanistan," Gates told reporters.

Karzai is expected to arrive in Pakistan later Wednesday for two days' of talks with Pakistani leaders to bolster relations between the two neighbours battling Taliban militants.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was to deliver a speech in the United States on Wednesday pressing the Afghan government to step up efforts for a political solution with the Taliban to bring the conflict to an end.

Another car bomb attack killed five Afghan security personnel at a security post in Paktika, the eastern province which has become a flashpoint for a Taliban insurgency and which borders militant strongholds in Pakistan.