In Kabul, Rumsfeld vows end to terror

In his speech to US troops at the Bagram Air Base he said US led forces were ready to ‘‘go after’’ any Al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas who regrouped to launch a spring offensive. Rumsfeld met some of the 7,000 US and 5,000 other Western troops here.

He said he was not worried about a resurgence of the Taliban, the toppled Afghan rulers, and their allies in the Al Qaeda network. He said the troops of the world were determined to end ‘‘the tyranny of terror.’’

Addressing concerns that rebels were using bases across the border in Pakistan to escape US forces, Rumsfeld praised cooperation from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf but added: ‘‘It is impossible to seal completely the Afghanistan border with Pakistan. But it is not impossible to find concentrations of Taliban and go after them.’’

Rumsfeld shied away from the idea of a ‘‘Marshall Plan’’ for Afghanistan, like the one which rebuilt Europe after World War 11, but said restoring security in the country was important.

But in a joint news conference with Afghanistan’s interim leader Hamid Karzai, Rumsfeld said the US would give all the help it could to help rebuild the country’s shattered military.

In an interview to mediapersons travelling with him, he pledged more US military support for an international security force of peacekeepers, but promised no US troops would be sent despite pressure from international aid and human rights groups.

Rumsfeld’s final stop before heading to Turkmenistan was a meeting with the governor of Herat Province bordering Iran. He talked to Ismail Khan, a close ally of Iran, at Herat city airport.

The US has made complaints, rejected by Ismail Khan and Iran, that some fleeing Taliban and Al Qaeda forces have managed to escape into Iran from Afghanistan.