KABUL - Former UN envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said that he was "disappointed" in President Hamid Karzai for becoming "more dependent" on warlords and powerbrokers.
In an extract from his new book, Power Struggle Over Afghanistan, the Norwegian diplomat who served in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2010, says the Afghan president's leniency towards warlords was disappointing because they "had destroyed Afghanistan in the past, and should not be allowed to contaminate its future."

In the book, MrEide discusses his time as the top UN envoy to Afghanistan during which time the second post-Taliban presidential elections took place.
He says the feeling of disappointment was mutual because Mr Karzai "believed I had not stood up strongly enough against the United States and other foreigners who had interfered so blatantly in the presidential elections."

Afghanistan's presidential elections in 2009 were marred with fraud and irregularities. President Karzai accused Western officials of plotting to oust him from office.
Eide, who was considered a close friend of Mr Karzai, also lashed out at the US for sidelining the UN and NATO in making key decisions about Afghanistan.

"The UN had never been really involved or consulted by Washington on critical strategy-related questions, nor had even the closest NATO partners," Eide says.
In his book, he urges the West to adopt workable strategies in Afghanistan, where he believes the international community is "trapped between an impatient public and a growing insurgency in a country where quick fixes do not exist."