AFP - Afghanistan is supported by the world's strongest military forces and the Taliban are weakened, but Afghans are still losing hope, ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah told AFP in an interview.

The distance between people and the government is growing, Abdullah said as the country marked the sixth anniversary of the assassination of famous commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, who fought the Taliban and Soviet occupation.

Abdullah, 47, was close to Massoud, whose September 9, 2001 killing by Al-Qaeda operatives was the first suicide attack in Afghanistan and came two days before the 9/11 attacks that led the US to topple the Taliban regime.

"Today the Taliban are weaker than that time, much weaker," he said Saturday.

"The forces fighting against the Taliban, together with the people of Afghanistan -- these are the strongest military alliances in the whole world."

However people were less hopeful than in 2001, he said, adding that in his opinion, the country lacked the vision of a leader like Massoud.

Growing insecurity, government inefficiency and incompetence and the absence of a coherent development strategy have contributed to popular disillusion, said Abdullah, who was controversially dropped as foreign minister last year.

In 2002, for example, Afghanistan could have coped for "at least a few months" without the international troops now here to fight the Taliban.

"Today we cannot afford this for six minutes," Abdullah said.

"The Taliban, from a situation in late 2002 and 2003 when they used to cross the border from time to time to conduct operations, today they have bases inside Afghanistan," he added.

Afghans initially supported the democratic process adopted after the Taliban was toppled, but Abdullah noted: "Today what I hear from the people, it is only something like losing hope."

Abdullah, who had a high media profile during the Soviet resistance, is today the secretary general of the Massoud Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that raises money for various assistance projects in Afghanistan.

President Hamid Karzai has been accused of sidelining members of Massoud's Northern Alliance in his current administration, a charge he denies.

Key figures of the alliance, including parliamentary speaker Younus Qanooni, are among the president's main opponents in Afghanistan's emerging democracy.

Karzai said at a ceremony Sunday to commemorate Massoud's killing that he expected Abdullah to be back in government "soon."

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