KABUL - The Taliban is likely to be a long-term threat in Afghanistan beyond 2014, the top US military chief has said, despite more than a decade of international forces seeking to eliminate the insurgency.

The comment incited a reaction from the Afghan Ministry of Interior which agreed with the statement, but linked the threat to the ongoing support of neighboring Pakistan.

"The Taliban will continue to threaten [Afghanistan] if they have the support of regional intelligence and regional countries especially Pakistan. If Pakistan continues to support and fund them, unfortunately the Taliban will remain a long-term threat in Afghanistan," said MOI spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Martin Dempsey, told the Associated Press in an interview that the US accepts that the Taliban is likely to remain a military threat in some parts of Afghanistan long after the US troops complete their combat mission next year.

" Yes, of course there will be. And if we were having this conversation 10 years from now, I suspect there would (still) be contested areas because the history of Afghanistan suggests that there will always be contested areas," the Associated Press quoted Dempsey saying.

Afghan member of parliament Gul Pacha Majidi agreed that the threats in Afghanistan are drawn from the Pakistan "havens" for insurgents.

"The only way to stop the Taliban's threats is to remove their havens of terrorism that are in Pakistan's territory," he said. (Tolo News)