Rumsfeld meets US troops on Afghan visit

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has told US troops in Afghanistan they are ‘‘bringing the consequences to the terrorists’’, but it was impossible to know how long it would take to finish the job.

In the first visit by a top US official into an Afghanistan only recently freed from Taliban rule, Mr Rumsfeld also met with the country’s new interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai.

‘‘We want to be as helpful as we can,’’ in making Afghanistan a stable country inhospitable to terrorists, Mr Rumsfeld said he told Karzai.

Karzai, he said, ‘‘is anxious to be cooperative with us in every possible way.’’ Nevertheless, ‘‘it’s not going to be an easy task.’’

They met not far from former Taliban front lines and under extraordinary security at Bagram airfield outside Kabul.

Karzai told Rumsfeld the US military had boosted an Afghan opposition ‘‘incapacitated’’ by years of war. ‘‘The way you provided help for us was the opportunity that we wanted,’’ he said.

After the meeting and briefings from US commanders, Mr Rumsfeld stood in the gigantic hangar, the roof damaged by old mortar fire, to shake hands with some of the troops.

He told the soldiers that US President George W Bush was determined ‘‘that we let the world know that our country cannot be attacked without consequences - and you are bringing the consequences to the terrorists.’’

Earlier, talking to soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division at a base near Afghanistan, Mr Rumsfeld said the fires at the World Trade Centre ‘‘are still burning as we sit here, they’re still bringing bodies out. Fortunately, the caves and tunnels at Tora Bora are also burning’’.

But he warned: ‘‘There’s no way to know how long it’s going to take to find’’ Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden.

Mr Rumsfeld also met with the Afghan’s interim defence minister, Mohammed Fahim.

An international security force of between 3,000 to 5,000 troops from various countries will enter Kabul after Saturday, when Karzai takes office, the Defence Secretary said.

The US would provide support, including intelligence, airlift support and a rapid reaction force in case of trouble. There are ‘‘rumblings’’ that a similar security force for one or two other Afghan cities is under consideration, he said.