Diplomatic row as Afghans expel Brit and Irishman

KABUL - A diplomatic row erupted on Wednesday between Afghanistan and key aid partners after Kabul ordered the expulsion of a Briton and Irishman working for the EU and the UN, accusing them of threatening state security.

With Afghan President Hamid Karzai away in neighbouring Pakistan, a government official said that acting European Union mission head Michael Semple and senior United Nations official Marvin Patterson had held an illegal meeting with members of the Taliban and must leave by Thursday.

"It is the government's last decision. They are persona non grata," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Western diplomats in Kabul closed ranks and insisted the row was merely a "misunderstanding". Semple told Reuters that it would "not be appropriate" for him to comment on the matter at this time.

The government accused the pair -- both old Afghan hands and experts in local languages and customs - of holding talks with Taliban members in Helmand province, the heartland of Afghanistan's drug-producing poppy industry and part of the main Taliban strongholds.

"Not only did they hold talks with the Taliban, but also had given them money," the Afghan official said. "It is not clear whether they were supporting the insurgency or not."

He said it was also not known if the meeting was a personal initiative or if they were acting in an official capacity, but 50 Afghans - some of them colleagues of the pair - have been detained and investigated over their links to the matter.

Semple and Patterson have lived and worked in Afghanistan for more than a decade - even during the rule of the Taliban that was toppled with the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Both are considered highly experienced, hands-on experts on Afghanistan, valuable skills in a country in which scores of international and non-governmental aid organisations are attempting to run reconstruction and development projects.

Aid organisations and analysts say the biggest threat to humanitarian work in the country has been the growing Taliban insurgency - particularly in the south and east, where remnants of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda's network are stoking it.

The Afghan official said the meeting took place in Helmand's Musa Qala district, controversially abandoned earlier this year by British troops after a deal was struck with local elders to police themselves.

The agreement was criticised by the government after Taliban insurgents swiftly took control of the area until driven out two weeks ago when NATO and Afghan forces retook it.

Helmand is the heart of Afghanistan's drug-producing poppy industry and the EU and U.N. have a key role in the British-led eradication programme.

Afghanistan's poppies produce over 90 percent of the world's heroin and the massive, multi-million dollar illegal industry it supports is said by analysts to be a primary reason for the Taliban's resurgence in the south and east.

The Afghan government, which has little support in the Taliban heartlands, insists publicly that it will not negotiate with the insurgents but frequent contacts are known to take place between unofficial emissaries.

Western governments also hold the line that the Taliban must not be negotiated with, but privately argue that dividing the insurgents and splitting the leadership is a legitimate strategy.