Washington: Admitting that the United States is still far from destroying the al Qaida even two years after the Sept 11 terror strikes, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said his country faces "a long, hard slog" in the fight against Osama bin Laden's terrorist organisation.

In an internal memo released by the Pentagon, Rumsfeld expressed the belief that the US-led coalition would win in Afghanistan and Iraq, but so far they have had mixed results.

He wrote that the US "has made reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis" but has made "somewhat slower progress" tracking down top Taleban leaders who sheltered al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

"My impression," he said, "is that we have not yet made truly bold moves, although we have made many sensible, logical moves in the right direction, but are they enough?"

Rumsfeld raised the possibility of creating a new team or agency in the federal government specifically to fight terrorism world-wide.

The memo, dated Oct 16, was addressed to Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Richard Myers and two of their deputies. In it, Rumsfeld offered a much more stark assessment of the global war on terrorism than he often gives publicly.

"It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog," Rumsfeld wrote.

PTI