A top U.S. general suggested on Sunday the need for American-led military operations against militants in countries neighboring Afghanistan. General Tommy Franks, the head of the U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. war on terror could not be limited to Afghanistan. "The relationships that we have with surrounding states around Afghanistan will permit us over time to do the work that...all of us recognize needs to be done. It won't be finished until it's all done," he told reporters.

Washington fears a significant number of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who survived the U.S. air campaign and Afghan-led ground assault against them have escaped from Afghanistan into Pakistan or Iran.

U.S. troops and special forces soldiers are scouring Afghanistan for pockets of resistance but believe their al Qaeda and Taliban targets have successfully hidden themselves in the mountains, blended in with the local population or fled across Afghanistan's porous borders.

Franks gave no details of the type of "relations" the United states has with Afghanistan's neighbors, but not all are good.

The United States has named Iran as part of an "axis of evil" threatening global stability and has accused Tehran of meddling in Afghan politics to undermine U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan has been a staunch ally of the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan but there would be fierce resistance among people along the often lawless Afghan-Pakistan border to the presence of substantial numbers of U.S. soldiers.

The United States has tried to forge closer ties with the three former Soviet republics that also border Afghanistan to the north. It had most success with Uzbekistan, where U.S. troops have been stationed during the campaign against the Taliban militia.

Tajikistan was used as a key supply line to the Northern Alliance which helped defeat the Taliban, while Turkmenistan kept its distance, putting neutrality ahead of closer ties with Washington.

Franks said Afghanistan, with the help of thousands of U.S.-led troops and a Turkish-led multinational peacekeeping force of nearly 5,000 international soldiers in the capital Kabul, was gradually becoming more stable.

"The sense of stability, while not having arrived yet in Afghanistan, is moving in the right direction," he said.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks talks with media in Kabul Aug. 25, 2002. Franks is in Kabul for one day to meet his troops and discuss with local leaders the latest U.S.-led operations to root out al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives. (Pool/Reuters)