Karzai: We have failed

President Hamid Karzai admitted his government and the US-led NATO mission have failed to provide security to Afghans, giving an interview to mark 10 years since the start of the war against the Taliban.Karzai, who was forced to review his efforts to broker a settlement after his peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated last month, also told the BBC that he had not ruled out peace talks with the insurgents.

"We've done terribly badly in providing security to the Afghan people and this is the greatest shortcoming of our government and of our international partners," he said."What we should do is to provide better, more predictable environment of security to the Afghan citizens, and that the international community and the Afghan government definitely have failed (to do)," he added.

Last month, the United Nations said the number of security incidents was up 39 percent on the first eight months of last year -- figures that NATO disputed, saying insurgent attacks were down two percent in the same period.The Afghan president, who took office shortly after the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime, denied that Rabbani's killing by a suicide bomber on September 20 had suspended his quest for talks with the Taliban.