Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan-American author of bestselling novel "The Kite Runner" flew kites with boys on a Kabul hilltop on Monday, hailing development as the key to crushing Taliban rebels.

Hosseini, in Afghanistan as an ambassador for UN refugee agency UNHCR, capped his visit by going to a famous viewpoint, where despite his literary prowess he failed to get his kite airborne as curious children milled around.

His most famous novel tells the tale of two boys growing up in Kabul, one of whom witnesses the rape of the other in an incident that transforms their future and portrays Afghanistan as a poor, brutalised society.

The author left Afghanistan when he was a child and has spent 30 years in the United States, where he has built a reputation writing about his homeland, which is battling to emerge from decades of civil war.

Hosseini told AFP he had seen "great progress" in Afghanistan since visits in 2003 and 2007 after the fall of the Taliban regime, but said deteriorating security was a huge concern.

"That progress is fragile and I think it stands to be lost, to evaporate, if we — as some people suggest — cut our losses and leave Afghanistan. I hope that does not happen," he said.

A fruitless war?

There are more than 100 000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan battling a resurgent Taliban in a war becoming increasingly unpopular in Western countries as foreign military deaths soar.

Hosseini, also author of "A Thousand Splendid Suns," said the best way to crush the Taliban was to focus on education, health care, jobs and better living conditions in the world's fifth poorest nation.

"If we're intent on winning this war with guns and tanks and air strikes, we're going to lose because this is where many great armies have been foiled," he said as blue-and-white kites sailed through the hazy sky.

"This is to me as much a war on poverty as it is a war against the Taliban. People are far more susceptible to the voice of the extremists when they are disappointed in their living conditions."

Hosseini has a development foundation which allocates grants for humanitarian work in Afghanistan. He said he was working on a third novel set in the country, but gave no timescale for its publication.

AFP

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