United Nations: Warning that Afghanistan faces broad security threats despite key political gains, a new United Nations report calls for deployment of more international troops rather than reducing their number.

The report, released yesterday (Dec 6, 2004) cites extremist and terrorists attacks, factional clashes among militia forces and criminal violence linked to narco-trafficking as reasons for continued insecurity.

"Without substantial progress in addressing the sources of insecurity, reconstruction efforts and the establishment of viable State institutions will continue to falter and the economy may well be subsumed by the illicit-drugs industry," warns the report written by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The deployment now of additional international forces, with robust and uniform rules of engagement, can provide the critical space in which progress can be made in the mutually reinforcing areas of security-sector reform, anti-narcotics activities, reconstruction, expansion of Government authority and imposition of the rule of law, Kofi Annan says in the report sent to both the 191-member General Assembly and 15-memebr Security Council.

At the same time, the report notes that for the first time, Afghans have "a directly elected President endowed with a strong popular mandate".