Taliban only fighting to expel foreigners - Omar

By Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said on Monday the hardline Islamist movement was not a threat to the world and was only fighting to eject foreign troops from Afghanistan.

The reclusive Afghan Taliban leader said he was making the remarks in response to statements by U.S. officials, who have warned Afghanistan could again become a failed state and an al Qaeda haven if the fight against the Taliban is lost.

"We want legitimate relations with countries of the world and we are not a threat to anyone," said a statement signed by Omar and published by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press.

"America portrays the Taliban as a threat to countries of the world and, with such propaganda, wants to use the countries and governments of the world in pursuit of its own interests.

"If foreign troops leave Afghanistan, that will be a victory for the people of Afghanistan," he said.

U.S. and British ministers are pressing reluctant NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, especially the volatile south, to quell the Taliban insurgency relaunched two years ago.

More than 6,000 people were killed in fighting in Afghanistan last year, nearly 2,000 of them civilians.

While the Taliban have suffered heavy casualties every time they have fought international troops, their strategy of guerrilla attacks, suicide and roadside bombs is aimed at sapping foreign governments' political will to sustain the war.