KABUL, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will not allow Taliban militants and allied groups to win the war in the war-wreckage Afghanistan, the visiting NATO secretary general said Wednesday.

    "NATO nations are fighting and will not give the terrorists an opportunity to win," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, secretary general of the western military alliance, told newsmen at a joint press conference after signing a long-term partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at his Presidential palace.

    Scheffer made this remarks amid increasing militancy in Afghanistan's southern region where hundreds of remnants of Taliban's former regime are said to have holed up.

    According to NATO sources, more than 250 militants have been killed in the troubled southern region, mostly in Taliban's former stronghold Kandahar, since early weekend, bringing the number of casualties to more than 2,100 people since the beginning of this year in the post-Taliban nation.

    To make Afghan security forces strong and strengthen stability here, Scheffer said that NATO was ready to provide training to Afghanistan's National Army (ANA).

    "Many NATO allies are ready to look into training the Afghanistan National Army. The ANA will be capable of doing thing which is now being done by us. The ANA can have position and can take responsibility," the NATO Secretary General stressed.

    Earlier, Afghan President Hamid Karzai hailed the agreement of partnership with NATO as a milestone in boosting relations by saying, "This agreement is a significant step towards further stability in Afghanistan and would further enhance Afghanistan's relations with the international community." Enditem