New Delhi  - Architect of the 1995 Dayton agreement ending the war in Bosnia, Richard Holbrooke is familiar with situations that seem nearly hopeless. Newly appointed as special US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the 67-year-old diplomat told the annual Munich Security Conference several days ago that the situation in the region was more difficult than any he had seen.

Holbrooke's worst fears were likely confirmed on Wednesday, the eve of his scheduled visit to Kabul, when a Taliban suicide commando turned the Afghan capital into a battlefield. The unprecedented attacks claimed more than 25 lives. They also disgraced Afghanistan's police and army, tasked last year by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to protect their country's capital.

Yet again, Taliban insurgents have shown that the weakening government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai cannot even prevent attacks near the presidential palace. No matter that central Kabul has become a fortress - bristling with armed guards, roadblocks and checkpoints - that increasingly reminds visitors of Baghdad.

The security precautions failed to stop the Taliban on Wednesday. According to the Afghan interior ministry, five militants attacked the justice ministry. Four managed to enter the building, where they fired automatic rifles in all directions, tossed hand grenades and then fought a three-hour gun battle with security forces.

Another assailant was shot to death at the education ministry before he could detonate his explosive vest. A seventh blew himself up at the gate of the corrections department, enabling a comrade to enter the building and detonate his explosive vest. All eight attackers were killed.

Afghan intelligence chief Amerullah Saleh said "the enemy" had aimed to grab headlines and demonstrate their ability to commit mass murder in Kabul. In this they succeeded.

Interior Minister Hanif Atmar nevertheless had praise for security forces, saying they had swiftly brought the situation under control. Elsewhere, he said, fighting had raged for days - an allusion to terrorist attacks last November in the Indian city of Mumbai. What Atmar left unsaid, however, was that India's government - in contrast with Afghanistan's - is not threatened by an extremist movement growing stronger by the day. And India is not in a state of war.

Wednesday's coordinated attacks were the latest in a series of spectacular operations by the Taliban. In January 2008, they attacked Kabul's Serena Hotel, the country's sole five-star facility; Norway's foreign minister was staying there at the time. Last April, Taliban fighters opened fire on a military parade in the capital attended by Karzai. And the summer, they stormed the prison in Kandahar and freed hundreds of their comrades.

Bombastic forecasts of the Taliban's imminent defeat, particularly by US military officers, stopped a long time ago.

Still, Taliban leaders likely note with concern that the international community - foremost the new US administration - has begun to pay more attention to neglected problems in Afghanistan. One reason the international community faces possible failure there is that the war in Iraq has diverted valuable resources. This has left a shortage of funds for reconstruction as well as too few foreign troops for Afghanistan.

But awareness of the egregious failings in Afghanistan's civilian reconstruction has grown around the world. And the US plans to beef up its Afghan force significantly this year.

In Holbrooke's words, there is no "magic formula" for Afghanistan. And General David Petraeus, the head of the US Central Command, said he expected the fight against insurgents there to get worse before it got better.

The seriousness of the situation was shown earlier this week by a survey commissioned by broadcasters BBC of Britain, ABC News of the United States and ARD of Germany. Just 40 per cent of the Afghan respondents said they thought their country was headed in the right direction. Three years ago, almost twice as many thought so.

Holbrooke now has the assignment of turning things around. As the New York Times newspaper recently wrote: "He has taken on a task so difficult that merely averting disaster may be the only triumph." (dpa)