Karzai, accompanied by top NATO commander US General Stanley McChrystal, spoke to representatives and residents in Kandahar about renewed efforts to bring stability to the war-weary province.

"Right now the life of Kandahar is a very bad life," Karzai said in a speech to the shura, a traditional council gathering, in Kandahar city. "I need to start the operation to clean up the enemy. We need your help and support."

Karzai's pleas, which also hit out against police and government corruption, were mostly well-received by the group, most of whom applauded and stood to raise their hands when he asked for their support.

His comments came as a Taliban attack on a police post in the central province of Day Kundi led to a day-long battle that killed eight policemen, four civilians and nine militants, according to provincial governor Qurban Ali.

Many of the 30,000 troops US President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan late last year are heading to Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement and a hotbed of bombings, assassinations and lawlessness.

The Kandahar operation promises to be a major test of the foreign alliance's efforts to bring a quick end to the nearly nine-year war against increasingly emboldened insurgents.

Karzai expressed condolences for the 50 people killed in the province on Wednesday in a suicide bombing on a wedding, an attack which was blamed on the Taliban, and called on the militants to renounce violence.

Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omar said the president would use the Kandahar visit to stress to wary locals that the campaign in the troubled area was a "process of stabilisation" rather than a major military offensive.

Although McChrystal accompanied Karzai's delegation, officials said the trip focused on local, civilian initiatives to bring improved development and governance to the area.

The general told reporters after the speech that NATO-led forces "will be well on our way" to securing districts surrounding Kandahar city by the end of the year, but that the process will not be completed by then.

The president's half-brother, controversial head of Kandahar provincial council Ahmad Wali Karzai, told reporters after the speech that he thought the community's response showed it supported the NATO-led build-up in their area.

"The way the president described the military operation, there will no longer be a concern from the people," he said.

But Nazar Mohammad, a 96-year-old tribal elder who attended the meeting, told AFP that local leaders needed to be given prominent posts in police, army and government if there was to be broad support for peace efforts in Kandahar.

"(Karzai) did not let anyone speak. I would have told him these people at the shura tell you that they will support you and your operations, but they are all lying. They won't," Mohammad said.

The visit came as a report was published in London saying neighbouring Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency supports the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The London School of Economics report claims to have the most concrete evidence yet of direct links between the ISI and the militants, saying the agency funds, trains and provides sanctuary to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Based on interviews with nine Taliban field commanders, the report concludes that without a change in approach by Pakistan, both the Western-backed Afghan government and NATO-led forces will find it impossible to end the insurgency.

A spokesman for Pakistan army has rejected the report, describing it as baseless and malicious.

"It is a part of a malicious campaign against the Pakistan army and the ISI," Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

Last week saw a surge in Taliban attacks as 30 NATO soldiers were killed and the alliance announced a two- to three-month delay in the peak of the Kandahar drive, the most ambitious counter-insurgency operation in the war to date.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged patience with the war as NATO's International Security Assistance Force estimated the 142,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan would increase to 150,000 by August as part of a troop surge.

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