Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said that with a resurgent Taliban, a still-flourishing drug trade and a border with Pakistan believed to be home base for the al-Qaeda, Afghanistan can't afford for US troops to leave any time soon.

"US forces will not be able to leave soon from Afghanistan because the task is not over," said Karzai in a TV interview scheduled to air on Sunday. "We have to defeat terrorism. We'll have to enable Afghanistan to stand on its own feet. We'll have to enable Afghanistan to be able to defend itself.