'Up to 15,000 Taliban fighting in Afghanistan'

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WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (AFP): Afghanistan's interior minister said Friday 10,000 to 15,000 Taliban were fighting in the nation, offering a rare estimate on the insurgency which the new US administration has vowed to tackle.

Minister Hanif Atmar dismissed the strength of the insurgents, saying that a wave of high-profile attacks showed the desperation of the Taliban movement which was ousted from power in a US-led offensive in 2001.

Atmar, in Washington for a three-way dialogue with the United States and Pakistan on a new "war on terror" strategy, said that Taliban insurgents were operating in up to 17 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

"In terms of numbers, there could be between 10 and 15,000 Taliban insurgents," he told reporters.

Afghan authorities rarely give hard figures for the number of Taliban, saying that it is hard to define the movement.

Atmar said most of the insurgents were foreigners operating with Al-Qaeda or Central Asian extremist groups. He said many Afghans were recruited for economic reasons and that he did not consider them dye-in-the-wool Taliban.