New York: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has strongly criticised the American and British conduct of the war in his country and demanded that his government be given the lead in policy decisions.

In the interview to New York Times, Karzai said that he wanted the US American forces to stop arresting suspected Taliban and their sympathisers, asserting that these arrests and past mistreatment were discouraging Taliban from coming forward to lay down their arms.

Karzai said the real terrorist threat lay in sanctuaries of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan.

"The war against terrorism is not in Afghan villages, the war against terrorism is elsewhere, and that's where the war should go," he told the Times, referring to the Taliban and Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan.

"There is no way but to close the sanctuaries," he said.

"Pakistan will have no peace, Pakistan's progress will suffer, so will Afghanistan's peace and progress, so will the world's. If you want to live, and live in peace, and work for prosperity, that has to happen. The sanctuaries must go," he said.

He blamed mistreatment by some warlords and the US forces for driving the Taliban out of the country, to Pakistan, where they regrouped and took up weapons again.

Karzai, however, expressed optimism over Afghanistan's path, and said that the change of government in Pakistan could bring progress against terrorism.

"We began on a very good note," he said of relations with the new government, led by the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in December last year.

Source : PTI