INTERVIEW-Top NATO commander calls for Afghan aid surge

By Andrew Gray

KABUL, Dec 17 (Reuters) - NATO's top operational commander has called for a surge in efforts to provide basic amenities such as roads, healthcare and schools to Afghans to drive a wedge between the majority population and insurgents.

In an interview with Reuters, U.S. Army General John Craddock said he was cautiously optimistic about NATO's mission in Afghanistan but it was vital for long-term success that Afghans believed their government could help in their daily lives.

"The key here is that there must be a governance push," Craddock said on Sunday evening after flying to western and southern Afghanistan to see the work of the 40,000-strong International Security Assistance Force, led by NATO.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan over the past two years with Taliban insurgents fighting a guerrilla war in the south and east, backed by high-profile suicide and car bombings across the country which foster an atmosphere of fear and insecurity.

But Craddock, speaking at ISAF's heavily fortified Kabul headquarters, said he believed Afghan and NATO forces would start 2008 in a better position than in 2007 and that the Taliban Islamist militants had been weakened.

Last week, Afghan and NATO troops retook the southern town of Musa Qala from the Taliban. NATO says that was the last sizeable population centre held by the group.

The key now in Musa Qala and other places, Craddock said, was for President Hamid Karzai's government and its international partners to follow up with projects to build schools, roads and clinics and provide electricity.

"When that's available you will find then the investors will come in with their money. Money being a coward, they won't show up until they're secure that they will be able to get a return on that investment," he said.

"They will put in business and commercial opportunity that creates jobs and that's the key. That's the wedge that gets these day fighters away from the Taliban, from the narco-traffickers."

DESIRE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Craddock got a reminder of Afghans' desire for development after he flew in a U.S. military cargo plane to the western town of Farah and was driven across a rocky desert landscape to a site where a new school is being built with U.S. funds.

As turbaned workers toiled in the sunshine and a cement mixer rumbled in the distance, the local governor welcomed Craddock and told him the province wanted more Afghan police, roads, clinics and schools.

Asked later if he feared the population could turn against NATO if those expectations were not met, Craddock said: "It's not so much that the population turns against us, it's the population doesn't believe in its government."

He backed a U.S. and British push for a "super-envoy" to improve the coordination of international aid efforts in Afghanistan. Both Afghan and Western officials complain aid is currently not organised effectively.

On the security front, Craddock said he hoped ISAF could turn over primary responsibility in some provinces or districts to Afghan forces in 2008.

NATO commanders have frequently praised the Afghan army in recent months but say the police still needs major reform, particularly to clamp down on corruption.

Craddock, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, said the alliance wanted to improve security particularly in the south and east, the most violent areas of Afghanistan.

He said NATO would also aim to curb the effectiveness of suicide bombings, even if it could not cut their number.

"We would like to be able to reduce the impact and effect. I don't know that we will be able to reduce the occurrence, the numbers," he said.