Rumsfeld Meets Warlords in Afghanistan
By REUTERS

Published: December 4, 2003

Filed at 9:54 a.m. ET

KABUL (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed suggestions on Thursday that Taliban rebels would disrupt Afghan elections next year, even as a guerrilla ambush killed a worker with a U.N.-backed project.

Rumsfeld, who met warlords in the north of the country to promote a disarmament drive, said NATO could eventually take on a wider role in post-war Afghanistan, the Western alliance's first mission outside Europe.