IRAQ: Cholera deaths rise to eight as disease spreads
BAGHDAD, 15 October 2008 (IRIN) - About 500 confirmed cholera cases have been registered in Iraq since the latest outbreak of the disease on 20 August. Eight people have died, a government spokesman said on 14 October.
"So far there have been 479 cases in 12 provinces: Babil 230 cases, Baghdad 73, Diwaniyah 61, Basra 50, Karbala 39, Najaf nine, Anbar eight, Maysan three, Arbil two, Samawa two, Kut one and Diyala one," said Ihsan Jaafar, director-general of the public health directorate and a spokesman for the ministry's cholera control unit.
Jaafar told IRIN cholera-related deaths had reached eight, with two new death cases in Qadissiyah and Babil provinces south of Baghdad.
Those who have died of the disease are a 10-year-old girl, a 61-year-old man, a child over five in Babil Province, two children under five in Qadissiyah Province; a three-year-old boy in Maysan; and an adult and a child in Baghdad.
Spreading north?
There is evidence of the disease spreading north: two cases were confirmed in Arbil, a city some 350km north of Baghdad. The disease was previously confined to central and southern Iraq.
"We are continuing to intensify our measures in all fields such as raising awareness among residents, and monitoring restaurants and food and drinks-related factories and stores; we have already closed a number of them and destroyed tonnes of material," Jaafar said.
According to Richard Finkelstein, co-author of Medical Microbiology, cholera occurs primarily during the summer months, possibly reflecting the increased presence of the organism in rivers and lakes during these months, as well as the enhanced opportunity for it to multiply in unrefrigerated foods.
The Iraqi Health Ministry and the World Health Organization have blamed the country's rundown water and sanitation infrastructure for the outbreak.
Cholera is a gastro-intestinal disease typically spread by contaminated water. It can cause severe diarrhoea, which in extreme cases can lead to fatal dehydration. Treating drinking water with chlorine and improving hygiene conditions can prevent the disease.
sm/ar/cb[END]
IRIN.
onsdag 15 oktober 2008
PHILIPPINES: "Humanitarian crisis" risk in Mindanao
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tisdag 14 oktober 2008
Israeli parties in 'coalition deal'
Israeli parties in 'coalition deal'
Labour leader Barak would become senior deputy prime minister if a new coalition assumes power [EPA]
Israel's Kadima and Labour parties have reached an agreement in principle for the formation of a new coalition government.
The deal, reported in Israeli newspapers on Monday, paves the way for Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, to become the next prime minister.
Ehud Barak, Labour's leader, will be named senior deputy prime minister, next only to the prime minister in rank.
Livni, 50, was asked by Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, on September 22 to form a new government after Ehud Olmert, the incumbent prime minister, announced he would resign over corruption allegations.
Reporting on the developments, David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said: "There has been marathon talks between the two sides - 18 hours so far.
"Israeli media say it has been signed, but our contacts with the Kadima party say that although agreement is close, it has not actually been signed.
"But we are very near to that giant step of Tzipi Livni becoming the next prime minister."
Concessions
Chater said that the Labour party did not get the increases in the government budget they were asking for as part of the deal.
However, it did get some of the concessions they wanted, for instance, an increase in student fees.
But the seats of Labour and Kadima do not add up to a majority needed to run parliament. The support of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party is necessary to gain a majority.
The Shas party has demanded increases to child subsidies and a promise not to negotiate with the Palestinians over Jerusalem, to join the coalition.
Livni has set a deadline of October 27 to form a coalition. Otherwise elections to choose a new prime minister will have to be held.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
Labour leader Barak would become senior deputy prime minister if a new coalition assumes power [EPA]
Israel's Kadima and Labour parties have reached an agreement in principle for the formation of a new coalition government.
The deal, reported in Israeli newspapers on Monday, paves the way for Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, to become the next prime minister.
Ehud Barak, Labour's leader, will be named senior deputy prime minister, next only to the prime minister in rank.
Livni, 50, was asked by Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, on September 22 to form a new government after Ehud Olmert, the incumbent prime minister, announced he would resign over corruption allegations.
Reporting on the developments, David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said: "There has been marathon talks between the two sides - 18 hours so far.
"Israeli media say it has been signed, but our contacts with the Kadima party say that although agreement is close, it has not actually been signed.
"But we are very near to that giant step of Tzipi Livni becoming the next prime minister."
Concessions
Chater said that the Labour party did not get the increases in the government budget they were asking for as part of the deal.
However, it did get some of the concessions they wanted, for instance, an increase in student fees.
But the seats of Labour and Kadima do not add up to a majority needed to run parliament. The support of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party is necessary to gain a majority.
The Shas party has demanded increases to child subsidies and a promise not to negotiate with the Palestinians over Jerusalem, to join the coalition.
Livni has set a deadline of October 27 to form a coalition. Otherwise elections to choose a new prime minister will have to be held.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
måndag 13 oktober 2008
UK Intelligentsia Blast Terror Detention
UK Intelligentsia Blast Terror Detention
"In 42 days we will have made you different. You may be charged, you may be released. You will always be different," Kennedy writes.CAIRO — Forty-two of Britain's most renowned writers and intellectuals have picked up their pens in a rare protest against the government's plan to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days, ahead of a crucial vote on the controversial legislation.
"We don’t know how lucky we are, to live in a nation where police officers have all of six weeks to discover why they’ve locked us up," award-winning author Phillip Pullman writes in a sarcastic essay as part of the 42 Writers for Liberty campaign.
"Ask them after 41 days why a prisoner is still behind bars, and they can honestly and innocently say 'No idea, mate,' But give them that extra day, and they’ll crack it."
In a protest not seen since leading figures in the arts world clashed with the Margaret Thatcher government in the 1980s, the top writers are speaking out against a bill extending pre-charge detention for terror suspects from 28 to 42 days.
The literary protest, coordinated by the human rights group Liberty, saw the writers publishing a collection of satire, essays, fiction and poetry to protest the proposal on the website www.42writers.com.
In her piece, novelist Stella Duffy lists things that can take 42 days to accomplish including writing the first six chapters of her first book; going through two rounds of chemotherapy; undergoing in-vitro fertilization and watching the garden change from summer to autumn.
AL Kennedy, winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award, warns that being held for 42 days without charge would leave a permanent scar on any individual.
"In 42 days we will have made you different. You may be charged, you may be released. You will always be different," she writes in her essay.
"We will always be in how you think. We do not need to hurt you. We will steal you from yourself."
Sleepwalking
"There's a real danger that people in Britain are sleepwalking into an assault on our human rights," said Allen.
The literary protest runs in parallel with a mass protest planed by Amnesty International against the detention limit as a gross attack on liberties.
"There's a real danger that people in Britain are sleepwalking into an assault on our human rights," Kate Allen, UK director of Amnesty, said on the organization's website.
"Plans to extend detention without charge should be abandoned once and for all. We don't want them returning under another guise - not next month, not next year."
The detention limit bill will face Monday a new vote at the House of Lords, where it is expected to meet fierce opposition.
This comes four months after the government survived a rebellion of 36 Labour MPs to pass the bill by just nine votes in the House of Commons.
Extending terror detention has been an ongoing subject of controversy in Britain since 2005, when the Tony Blair government failed to get parliamentary approval to increase the limit to 90 days.
Civil rights groups lament that most other countries have detention periods shorter than 28 days.
Amnesty's rally will see protesters marching through the streets of Leeds dressing gowns and slippers and clutching pillows and blankets.
The rally will see the first public screening of Amnesty's new film, "Sleepwalk", by Oscar-shortlisted directing duo DarkFibre.
"This film is Amnesty's wake up call - we have got to stand up for our basic freedoms," says Allen.
"Hard-won liberties are at stake."
By IOL
"In 42 days we will have made you different. You may be charged, you may be released. You will always be different," Kennedy writes.CAIRO — Forty-two of Britain's most renowned writers and intellectuals have picked up their pens in a rare protest against the government's plan to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days, ahead of a crucial vote on the controversial legislation.
"We don’t know how lucky we are, to live in a nation where police officers have all of six weeks to discover why they’ve locked us up," award-winning author Phillip Pullman writes in a sarcastic essay as part of the 42 Writers for Liberty campaign.
"Ask them after 41 days why a prisoner is still behind bars, and they can honestly and innocently say 'No idea, mate,' But give them that extra day, and they’ll crack it."
In a protest not seen since leading figures in the arts world clashed with the Margaret Thatcher government in the 1980s, the top writers are speaking out against a bill extending pre-charge detention for terror suspects from 28 to 42 days.
The literary protest, coordinated by the human rights group Liberty, saw the writers publishing a collection of satire, essays, fiction and poetry to protest the proposal on the website www.42writers.com.
In her piece, novelist Stella Duffy lists things that can take 42 days to accomplish including writing the first six chapters of her first book; going through two rounds of chemotherapy; undergoing in-vitro fertilization and watching the garden change from summer to autumn.
AL Kennedy, winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award, warns that being held for 42 days without charge would leave a permanent scar on any individual.
"In 42 days we will have made you different. You may be charged, you may be released. You will always be different," she writes in her essay.
"We will always be in how you think. We do not need to hurt you. We will steal you from yourself."
Sleepwalking
"There's a real danger that people in Britain are sleepwalking into an assault on our human rights," said Allen.
The literary protest runs in parallel with a mass protest planed by Amnesty International against the detention limit as a gross attack on liberties.
"There's a real danger that people in Britain are sleepwalking into an assault on our human rights," Kate Allen, UK director of Amnesty, said on the organization's website.
"Plans to extend detention without charge should be abandoned once and for all. We don't want them returning under another guise - not next month, not next year."
The detention limit bill will face Monday a new vote at the House of Lords, where it is expected to meet fierce opposition.
This comes four months after the government survived a rebellion of 36 Labour MPs to pass the bill by just nine votes in the House of Commons.
Extending terror detention has been an ongoing subject of controversy in Britain since 2005, when the Tony Blair government failed to get parliamentary approval to increase the limit to 90 days.
Civil rights groups lament that most other countries have detention periods shorter than 28 days.
Amnesty's rally will see protesters marching through the streets of Leeds dressing gowns and slippers and clutching pillows and blankets.
The rally will see the first public screening of Amnesty's new film, "Sleepwalk", by Oscar-shortlisted directing duo DarkFibre.
"This film is Amnesty's wake up call - we have got to stand up for our basic freedoms," says Allen.
"Hard-won liberties are at stake."
By IOL
Stop Bush's War on Terror: Analysts
Stop Bush's War on Terror: Analysts
By; IOL
"The approach this administration took is breaking down," Lewis said. (Google)
WASHINGTON — With the Bush administration near the end of its term, demands are picking up steam to change Washington's anything-goes approach to the "war on terror".
"Things are starting to come a little unglued," James Lewis, a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday, October 12.
"The approach this administration took is breaking down. Some of it is, as it loses its political steam and its credibility, people are willing to speak out."
Seizing on the public fear of terrorism following the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan and Iraq under its "war on terror" campaign.
Coercive interrogations, indefinite detentions, secret overseas prisons, and warrantless surveillance of phone calls and emails were among the tools used by the administration.
"If it proves to be true, I think you'll see further demand for oversight and further demand for control," said Lewis.
The Bush administration has long resisted calls for radical changes in its "war on terror" approach.
Last year, it amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to permit the government to monitor communications that begin or end overseas.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey this month signed new guidelines on FBI operations to give it broad new powers to conduct surveillance and use other intrusive investigative techniques on Americans.
The administration has blocked a court order to release 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs from Guantanamo into the US, and has plodded on with trials by military trial of detainees at Guantanamo Bay despite repeated legal setbacks.
"The sense that what they are doing is right and necessary is very strong still in the Bush administration," said Lewis.
New Approach
Analysts say that the new administration should craft a new approach on fighting terror.
"Every democratic nation that has had to grapple with a terrorist threat has been obliged to alter some of the rules -- the rules of intelligence collection, police powers and so on," said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corporation.
"And that's okay so long as you modify the rules and work within the rules.
"Where things begin to go wrong is where people assert that the rules don't matter," he said.
The RAND Corporation said in a recent study that the US should stop using the "war on terror" label and shift its strategy against terror groups from the current heavy dependence on military might to greater use of policing and intelligence work.
Jenkins believes that the new administration should shore up international support against terrorism by acting in ways that reflect US values.
"I think as a first step we should close down Guantanamo. It is a symbol of things that are wrong," he said.
Calls for closing the notorious camp have gone nowhere despite a broad consensus that Guantanamo has been a costly mistake.
The US has been holding hundreds of detainees at its notorious Guantanamo detention center for years.
It declared them "enemy combatants" to deny them legal rights under the American legal system.
"We need to promptly identify and release those who are wrongly held, we need to develop a patently fair (legal) procedure," said Jenkins.
By; IOL
"The approach this administration took is breaking down," Lewis said. (Google)
WASHINGTON — With the Bush administration near the end of its term, demands are picking up steam to change Washington's anything-goes approach to the "war on terror".
"Things are starting to come a little unglued," James Lewis, a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday, October 12.
"The approach this administration took is breaking down. Some of it is, as it loses its political steam and its credibility, people are willing to speak out."
Seizing on the public fear of terrorism following the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan and Iraq under its "war on terror" campaign.
Coercive interrogations, indefinite detentions, secret overseas prisons, and warrantless surveillance of phone calls and emails were among the tools used by the administration.
"If it proves to be true, I think you'll see further demand for oversight and further demand for control," said Lewis.
The Bush administration has long resisted calls for radical changes in its "war on terror" approach.
Last year, it amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to permit the government to monitor communications that begin or end overseas.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey this month signed new guidelines on FBI operations to give it broad new powers to conduct surveillance and use other intrusive investigative techniques on Americans.
The administration has blocked a court order to release 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs from Guantanamo into the US, and has plodded on with trials by military trial of detainees at Guantanamo Bay despite repeated legal setbacks.
"The sense that what they are doing is right and necessary is very strong still in the Bush administration," said Lewis.
New Approach
Analysts say that the new administration should craft a new approach on fighting terror.
"Every democratic nation that has had to grapple with a terrorist threat has been obliged to alter some of the rules -- the rules of intelligence collection, police powers and so on," said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corporation.
"And that's okay so long as you modify the rules and work within the rules.
"Where things begin to go wrong is where people assert that the rules don't matter," he said.
The RAND Corporation said in a recent study that the US should stop using the "war on terror" label and shift its strategy against terror groups from the current heavy dependence on military might to greater use of policing and intelligence work.
Jenkins believes that the new administration should shore up international support against terrorism by acting in ways that reflect US values.
"I think as a first step we should close down Guantanamo. It is a symbol of things that are wrong," he said.
Calls for closing the notorious camp have gone nowhere despite a broad consensus that Guantanamo has been a costly mistake.
The US has been holding hundreds of detainees at its notorious Guantanamo detention center for years.
It declared them "enemy combatants" to deny them legal rights under the American legal system.
"We need to promptly identify and release those who are wrongly held, we need to develop a patently fair (legal) procedure," said Jenkins.
fredag 10 oktober 2008
Market crisis worsens
Market crisis worsens
Markets around the world are reeling [AFP]
Share markets in Asia have gone into free fall, indicating the global financial crisis was deepening despite increased efforts by governments and institutions to stem the bleeding.
Japan's Nikkei index plunged more than 11 per cent on Friday to fall below the 9,000 level for the first time since 2003 and hover close to the 8,000 mark, before recovering slightly in the afternoon session.
Yoshinori Nagano, the chief strategist at Daiwa Asset Management, said no one was buying.
"Fundamentals don't matter any more and there's no explanation for such a plunge," he said.
Shares dived elsewhere in Asia. India's main stock index fell more than nine per cent on opening and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by more than eight per cent.
Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200, South Korea's Kospi and Singapore's Straits Times index also dived steeply, all losing around seven per cent following Wall Street's nearly 700-point drop on Thursday, before they reversed some losses.
Singapore in recession
Singapore's government announced on Friday that its economy was in recession, after releasing figures showing real Gross Domestic Product was down for a second quarter.
IN DEPTH
How the financial bubble burstQ&A: The US financial meltdownReacting to the financial crisis
The city-state heavily dependent on trade, making it very sensitive to hiccups in developed economies.
Elsewhere in Asia, Indonesia's share market remained suspended on Friday after it plunged more than 20 per cent during the week.
There are fears that the country could slide into bankruptcy despite assurances by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president, that the situation is "fully under control".
The IMF and the World Bank are due to hold their annual meetings on Friday and over the weekend, while finance ministers from the G7 group of wealthy nations will converge on the meetings' sidelines in Washington DC this weekend for talks on the crisis.
Currency reserves loan
A Japanese newspaper said Japan was to propose an IMF loan scheme at the meeting to give countries facing financial crisis access to the trillions of dollars in currency reserves held by Asian and Middle Eastern governments.
Experts are calling for a concerted global effort to restore confidence [GALLO/GETTY]The IMF-led scheme would be available to smaller emerging countries, not G7 members or other large nations, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
Under the Japanese plan, the IMF would ask the country that is to receive the funds to draw up a plan for revitalising its financial sector including writing off its bad assets.
The new emergency loans would be funded by the approximately 200 billion yen ($2bn) contributed by IMF member countries plus loans from the foreign currency reserves of countries such as Japan, China and Middle Eastern oil exporters.
The massive declines in Asia and on Wall Street comes despite the IMF reactivating an emergency aid process for countries seeking help in the global financial crisis, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the institution's president, said on Thursday.
He warned that the global economy was "on the cusps" of a recession and added that the IMF was "ready to answer any demand by countries facing problems".
The declines also come after the US Federal Reserve and central banks across the world from Europe to Asia cut interest rates to contain the market meltdown.
Co-ordinated action urged
James Henry an economist and investigative journalist, told Al Jazeera that the crisis "is not contained, it's spreading to a global level".
IN VIDEO
Robert Zoellick on the financial crisis
More videos ... "This is something that policy-makers have to get under control in the next week or so, otherwise we're in for a very deep depression," he warned.
Henry said central bank rate cuts and the plan to buy bank's bad assets have not worked.
What is needed is a "global stabilisation fund" to recapitalise banks with equity – as opposed to just buying their bad debt - and a stimulus package with some debt relief for borrowers, he said.
"But it requires much more co-ordination across boundaries than we've had before," he added.
Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, also called for a concerted effort by the world's wealthiest nations to work together on the crisis, telling Al Jazeera on Thursday that "the scope of this problem is much larger than what we can deal with".
"In the short term what the G7 needs to do is to try to take the actions it's starting to take - co-ordinated central bank actions ... to try to clean up the assets, to try to make sure there is liquidity in terms of banks being willing to provide funds to corporations and others [and] recapitalise the institutions," he said.
Markets around the world are reeling [AFP]
Share markets in Asia have gone into free fall, indicating the global financial crisis was deepening despite increased efforts by governments and institutions to stem the bleeding.
Japan's Nikkei index plunged more than 11 per cent on Friday to fall below the 9,000 level for the first time since 2003 and hover close to the 8,000 mark, before recovering slightly in the afternoon session.
Yoshinori Nagano, the chief strategist at Daiwa Asset Management, said no one was buying.
"Fundamentals don't matter any more and there's no explanation for such a plunge," he said.
Shares dived elsewhere in Asia. India's main stock index fell more than nine per cent on opening and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by more than eight per cent.
Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200, South Korea's Kospi and Singapore's Straits Times index also dived steeply, all losing around seven per cent following Wall Street's nearly 700-point drop on Thursday, before they reversed some losses.
Singapore in recession
Singapore's government announced on Friday that its economy was in recession, after releasing figures showing real Gross Domestic Product was down for a second quarter.
IN DEPTH
How the financial bubble burstQ&A: The US financial meltdownReacting to the financial crisis
The city-state heavily dependent on trade, making it very sensitive to hiccups in developed economies.
Elsewhere in Asia, Indonesia's share market remained suspended on Friday after it plunged more than 20 per cent during the week.
There are fears that the country could slide into bankruptcy despite assurances by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president, that the situation is "fully under control".
The IMF and the World Bank are due to hold their annual meetings on Friday and over the weekend, while finance ministers from the G7 group of wealthy nations will converge on the meetings' sidelines in Washington DC this weekend for talks on the crisis.
Currency reserves loan
A Japanese newspaper said Japan was to propose an IMF loan scheme at the meeting to give countries facing financial crisis access to the trillions of dollars in currency reserves held by Asian and Middle Eastern governments.
Experts are calling for a concerted global effort to restore confidence [GALLO/GETTY]The IMF-led scheme would be available to smaller emerging countries, not G7 members or other large nations, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
Under the Japanese plan, the IMF would ask the country that is to receive the funds to draw up a plan for revitalising its financial sector including writing off its bad assets.
The new emergency loans would be funded by the approximately 200 billion yen ($2bn) contributed by IMF member countries plus loans from the foreign currency reserves of countries such as Japan, China and Middle Eastern oil exporters.
The massive declines in Asia and on Wall Street comes despite the IMF reactivating an emergency aid process for countries seeking help in the global financial crisis, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the institution's president, said on Thursday.
He warned that the global economy was "on the cusps" of a recession and added that the IMF was "ready to answer any demand by countries facing problems".
The declines also come after the US Federal Reserve and central banks across the world from Europe to Asia cut interest rates to contain the market meltdown.
Co-ordinated action urged
James Henry an economist and investigative journalist, told Al Jazeera that the crisis "is not contained, it's spreading to a global level".
IN VIDEO
Robert Zoellick on the financial crisis
More videos ... "This is something that policy-makers have to get under control in the next week or so, otherwise we're in for a very deep depression," he warned.
Henry said central bank rate cuts and the plan to buy bank's bad assets have not worked.
What is needed is a "global stabilisation fund" to recapitalise banks with equity – as opposed to just buying their bad debt - and a stimulus package with some debt relief for borrowers, he said.
"But it requires much more co-ordination across boundaries than we've had before," he added.
Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, also called for a concerted effort by the world's wealthiest nations to work together on the crisis, telling Al Jazeera on Thursday that "the scope of this problem is much larger than what we can deal with".
"In the short term what the G7 needs to do is to try to take the actions it's starting to take - co-ordinated central bank actions ... to try to clean up the assets, to try to make sure there is liquidity in terms of banks being willing to provide funds to corporations and others [and] recapitalise the institutions," he said.
torsdag 9 oktober 2008
US mulls Taliban reconciliation
US mulls Taliban reconciliation
Gates, and other Nato leaders met to discuss the war in Afghanistan [Reuters]
Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, has said his country would "ultimately" be prepared to reconcile with the Taliban group to end the conflict in Afghanistan.
Gates on Thursday, however, ruled out any possible talks between the US and al-Qaeda fighters in the country.
And, speaking after the first day of Nato meetings in Budapest about the war in Afghanistan, Gates said any settlement with the Taliban would be on the Afghan government's terms and would require the group to subject itself to Kabul's rule.
"There has to be ultimately, and I'll underscore ultimately, reconciliation as part of a political outcome to this," he said.
"That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of us."
Gates also said that reconciliation efforts could not include anyone belonging to al-Qaeda, the group blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks which killed almost 3,000 people in the US.
A US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban in 2001 shortly after the attacks.
There are about 33,000 US troops in Afghanistan, while Nato has about 40,000 stationed in the country.
'Downward spiral'
Gates's comments come as a draft US intelligence report on Thursday said the situation in Afghanistan is now at its worst since the US-led invasion.
The almost completed National Intelligence Estimate said the country is in danger of a "downward spiral" into violence and chaos.
Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the top British military commander in Afghanistan, said on Sunday that the war there cannot be won militarily and that talks with the Taliban are crucial.
Several Nato commanders and diplomats have argued that negotiations with the Taliban are necessary.
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, said last week that he had asked Saudi Arabia to mediate negotiations with the Taliban and called on Mullah Omar, the group's leader, to make peace.
Source:
Agencies and Al'J.
Gates, and other Nato leaders met to discuss the war in Afghanistan [Reuters]
Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, has said his country would "ultimately" be prepared to reconcile with the Taliban group to end the conflict in Afghanistan.
Gates on Thursday, however, ruled out any possible talks between the US and al-Qaeda fighters in the country.
And, speaking after the first day of Nato meetings in Budapest about the war in Afghanistan, Gates said any settlement with the Taliban would be on the Afghan government's terms and would require the group to subject itself to Kabul's rule.
"There has to be ultimately, and I'll underscore ultimately, reconciliation as part of a political outcome to this," he said.
"That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of us."
Gates also said that reconciliation efforts could not include anyone belonging to al-Qaeda, the group blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks which killed almost 3,000 people in the US.
A US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban in 2001 shortly after the attacks.
There are about 33,000 US troops in Afghanistan, while Nato has about 40,000 stationed in the country.
'Downward spiral'
Gates's comments come as a draft US intelligence report on Thursday said the situation in Afghanistan is now at its worst since the US-led invasion.
The almost completed National Intelligence Estimate said the country is in danger of a "downward spiral" into violence and chaos.
Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the top British military commander in Afghanistan, said on Sunday that the war there cannot be won militarily and that talks with the Taliban are crucial.
Several Nato commanders and diplomats have argued that negotiations with the Taliban are necessary.
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, said last week that he had asked Saudi Arabia to mediate negotiations with the Taliban and called on Mullah Omar, the group's leader, to make peace.
Source:
Agencies and Al'J.
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