March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Credible national elections in Afghanistan can't be held at mid-year unless the security situation improves, United Nations officials said two weeks after a U.S. general said three-quarters of the country is safe.

``Insecurity in the country continues to follow a well-known pattern and has shown no signs of significant improvement,'' Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a written report to the Security Council and the General Assembly. ``The risk of suicide attacks against well-protected, international military targets remains of concern.''

Assistant Secretary-General Hedi Annabi told the Security Council today that ``genuine political choice as required for a credible election is simply impossible'' under current security conditions.

The war against al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan is almost over, U.S. General James Jones, commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, told a Belgian Senate committee March 10 in Brussels, according to Reuters. The number of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters has fallen to less than 1,000, Jones said.

Afghanistan is aiming to hold elections in July or August, according to the nation's UN ambassador, Ravan Farhadi. That timetable will be discussed at an international conference on Afghanistan in Berlin next week, which U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to attend.

In his address to the Security Council, Annabi cited fighting between warlords in northeast Afghanistan, which has been considered one of the safest regions of the country, and a firefight in Herat Sunday between forces loyal to the provincial governor and the government-appointed commander. That clash left 100 dead, the UN reported.

`Drug Economy'

Annabi also said Afghanistan's ``drug economy and the instability it promotes remains perhaps the greatest threat to the development of a stable functioning state.'' Afghanistan produced three-quarters of the world's opium last year as poppy cultivation neared a record level, the State Department said.

UN workers have been able to register 1.56 million of 1.9 million eligible voters in Afghanistan's eight major cities in a program that will continue for several more weeks, Annabi said. A new phase of the registration drive, aimed at registering the remaining 8 million eligible voters, will begin May 1, ``security permitting,'' he said.

``The next phase of registration will, however, demand an enormous rise in logistic needs, increased security risks, and complex organizational requirements,'' he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 24, 2004 13:28 EST