"What I really want to do is to wake up the international community to do each and every thing to provide security in the provinces," German Lieutenant General Norbert van Heyst told reporters at his farewell press conference.

Van Heyst is at the end of his six-month command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and will hand over the helm to NATO on Monday.

He said security had to be enforced before some 25,000 election workers could be deployed in the provinces, where Taliban remnants and extremists linked to renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have been regrouping.

"So I feel that one of the major efforts of the next upcoming month is really to try to export security from Kabul, this safe haven, into the provinces, that may be a challenge for this country," he said.

"The international community has to make each and every effort to guarantee this security."

He said while efforts to rebuild the Afghan national police force and army were underway, they would not be ready to take charge of security by the June 2004 elections.

Van Heyst said any possible expansion of ISAF beyond its current confines of Kabul "is a political question which has to be answered by politicians."

The United Nations and the Afghan government have been repeatedly rebuffed in their requests for an expansion of the peacekeeping force to the provinces, which remain largely under the sway of warlords and militias with nominal allegiance to President Hamid Karzai.

WAR.WIRE