Afghan FM accuses Pak of playing down Taliban 'terrorism'

KABUL: Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta accused Pakistan on Sunday of trying to play down the threat of "international terrorism" by labelling the Taliban uprising here an ethnic issue.   

"The Pakistan president wants to play down the issue of international terrorism ... to an ethnic issue in Afghanistan -- that's not true," said Spanta, in response to a claim by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf that Taliban insurgents had roots among Afghanistan's Pashtun tribes.   

"The terrorism which is religious extremism is a global network operating against Afghanistan and other democratic states from Russia to India to America with the support of a country," Spanta told a news conference in Kabul, in a clear reference to Pakistan.

"Terrorism is not an ethnic issue."   

Musharraf made his comments in a speech to the European Parliament in mid-September.   

Afghan and international officials say radical groups in Pakistan support the Taliban in their increasingly bloody insurgency against the Afghan government and nearly 40,000 foreign troops based here to hunt down militants, claims Islamabad denies.   

The Taliban came to power in 1996 with the support of Pakistan, which was one of three nations to recognise their government.