The top United Nations official in Afghanistan today called for a revision of the agreement between the Government and international military forces on detention, house searches and the use of air power, which has led to the deaths of many civilians.

The United Nations envoy to Afghanistan has strongly condemned a suicide bombing, “allegedly” using a 13-year-old boy, against British forces in the south of the violence-wracked nation.

Senior United Nations officials in Afghanistan have urged the Government to look at alternatives to imprisonment as well as ways to ensure the rights of detainees, citing the growing number of people being held in pre-trial detention and various abuses such as being kept in prison even after a sentence has been completed.

The opium industry is largely funding the Taliban''s war budget and is a major source of revenue for criminal groups and terrorists in Afghanistan despite becoming less important to the country''s overall economy, according to a United Nations report released in London today.