By Mark Bendeich KABUL, June 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations accused the Afghan government, its Western allies and lawmakers of failing to curb corruption and lawlessness on Monday, warning that this could fuel militant insurgents and threaten stability. Corruption and violent crimes are widespread in Afghanistan, feeding disillusionment with the government of Western-leaning President Hamid Karzai who has been leading the country since U.S.-led forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001. Tackling corruption, taming war-lords and improving living standards were top of Karzai's agenda when he won the country's first ever direct elections in 2004. But U.N. Special Representative to Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, called a news conference in Kabul to urge faster progress on the government, its foreign allies and the parliament, and he said the establishment of rule of law should be a top priority. "There won't be stability without justice," he said. Koenigs said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would put law and order at the top of the agenda for an international peace conference on Afghanistan to be held in Rome on July 2 and 3. "The era of lawlessness and corruption and unprofessional police and an unreliable justice system must end," he said. "I am not satisfied with the progress made so far in the last three or five years." Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since invading U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban from power, is under pressure at home and from foreign allies to make more progress on his pledges, but he faces daunting problems and threats to his life. On Sunday, Karzai survived a third attempt on his life in five years in a rocket attack during a provincial trip. Afghan police are poorly trained and ill equipped, and violent street crimes often go unpunished. Some criminals are linked to drug barons in the world's leading producer of heroin and former warlords who helped U.S.-led forces evict the Taliban six years ago and who now serve inside government. The lower house of parliament, populated by ex-warlords and former militia leaders along with suspected drug dealers, has also proposed a blanket amnesty for those who committed war crimes over nearly 30 years of conflict. "Anti-government elements are supported, fuelled and partly financed by criminals, sometimes linked with mafias and sometimes linked with smuggling, and quite a few times linked with the narcotic economy," Koenigs said. Afghanistan supplies about 90 percent of the world's heroin. Koenigs also appealed for cooler heads to prevail in domestic politics, after a roadside argument between Afghanistan's attorney-general and a general within the interior ministry erupted into a brawl near a picnic spot outside Kabul on Friday. Karzai is locked in a struggle with parliament, which recently passed a vote of no confidence in his foreign minister. "I would appreciate if everybody could lower the temperature. In two words, cool down," Koenigs said.
