US report derides Afghan police

Police are seen as crucial in efforts to combat lawlessness

Afghanistan's police force is incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement duties, a US government report says.

The report blames corruption, illiteracy, low pay, bad equipment, the insurgency and failings in a $1bn training programme.

It comes five years after Afghanistan's former Taleban rulers were driven from power by a US-led coalition.

The report, by the state department and the Pentagon, says long-term assistance and more than $600m a year is needed.

The Afghan government told the BBC it had not seen the report.

US 'priority'

The report has been sent to relevant congressional committee members, the New York Times reported on its website.

People across Afghanistan are losing faith in the police and, by extension, in the government BBC correspondent Mark Dummett New police force deployed

State department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus and Pentagon spokesman Todd Vichan both said they could not comment on the document, the Associated Press reported.

The BBC's Mark Dummett in Kabul says people across Afghanistan are losing faith in the police and, by extension, in the government.

He says that reforming the Afghan police force is now a top priority for the US.

The senior US commander in Afghanistan said 10 good police were better than 100 corrupt police, but 10 corrupt police could do more damage than one Taleban fighter.

This week, a group of influential businessmen and tribal elders from the south and west of Afghanistan travelled to Kabul to petition President Hamid Karzai. In recent months more than 20 of their relatives, colleagues and friends have been kidnapped.

They cannot afford the ransoms and are afraid to go to the police because they say the kidnappers wore uniforms.

If the president cannot help them, they say they will take the law into their own hands.

Our correspondent says this is an extreme example of what is going wrong in Afghanistan.