Afghanistan faces more Taliban violence -UN report

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16164006.htm

Afghanistan faces more Taliban violence -UN report

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A resurgent Taliban, a rampant drug trade and persistent corruption are hampering Afghanistan's reconstruction and threatening next month's elections, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday.

The country urgently needs extra funding to prevent any further delay in parliamentary and provincial elections now set for Sept. 18, Annan said. The elections were originally expected in October 2004.

With the elections just weeks away, some $31 million is needed to avoid any slippage in the technical preparations for the elections, the U.N. leader said in his latest progress report on the central Asian nation of some 30 million people.

International donors have already contributed $8.4 billion to help Afghanistan rebuild and establish itself as a democracy after decades of violence. U.S.-led forces ousted the country's former Taliban rulers for harboring al Qaeda leaders following deadly Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.