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Criticising the planned withdrawal of most foreign combat troops by 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said NATO forces should stay on in Afghanistan until they have finished their job to ensure stability. "It is regrettable that many participants in this operation are thinking about how to pull out of there. They took up this burden and should carry it to the end," The News quoted Putin, as saying. He said the withdrawal of the U.S.-led alliance, due to start next year, will leave the Central Asian region south of Russia vulnerable to militant violence and drug trafficking. "If there is no order in Afghanistan it will not be calm on our southern borders. The current (Afghan) leadership will have difficulties keeping the situation under control. NATO member states are present there, and are performing this function," he said. "We need to help them (NATO). We should not be fighting there again. Let them sit there and fight," he added. The Soviet Union fought a disastrous war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and Russia ruled out sending troops to aid the U.S.-led invasion after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. But Moscow has supported the NATO operation by allowing transit across its territory. It expanded that support with an agreement that took effect on Wednesday allowing the alliance to use a transit hub in Ulyanovsk to send non-lethal supplies in and out of Afghanistan using the Russian rail network and air transport. Supply routes are particularly important for the NATO operation in Afghanistan and the planned withdrawal. Removing a major hurdle for the alliance, Pakistan re-opened NATO transit lines through its territory in July after almost seven months of closure over a U.S. air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

NATO should stay in Afghanistan: Putin