Beckett voices hopes on Taleban

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Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said on a visit to Afghanistan that she hopes moderate members of the Taleban can be drawn away from the extremists.

She told the BBC that the Taleban threatened some ordinary Afghans, drawing them into their fold.

With time, Britain hoped such people could be separated from the destructive ones, said Mrs Beckett.

She made her comments during a visit to the southern province of Helmand, where she met British soldiers.

The foreign secretary also met Afghan politicians and civilian officials involved in reconstruction.

BBC Correspondent Charles Haviland travelled with Mrs Beckett to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

He said officials working on Helmand's development agreed with Mrs Beckett's assessment and said that they felt that given alternative livelihoods, men the Taleban paid to fight for them would turn elsewhere.

Mrs Beckett was told about the scale of the province's problems.

If Helmand were an independent country it would be the world's second-biggest opium producing state.

Poppy culture in Helmand rose by 160% last year

The Afghan government has little influence in the province, but the mainly-British provincial reconstruction team was trying to change that, Mrs Beckett was told.

The reconstruction team was trying to target the main traffickers and refining laboratories.

Mrs Beckett said: "Real progress is being made in building up the capacity of local institutions and driving forward development projects that are so important to improving the lives of the local people."