By Katherine Baldwin LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, July 25 (Reuters) - Britain's foreign minister and Afghanistan's leader on Wednesday backed a determined effort by the Afghan government to root out deep corruption that is driving people into the arms of the Taliban. Britain's David Miliband met Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul before flying to Lashkar Gah in the southern Helmand province. Britain has 7,100 troops based in Afghanistan. "We both agreed very strongly that progress in Afghanistan depended on change from the bottom up as well as the top down and the message of national leadership and community engagement was very, very important," Miliband told reporters at British military headquarters in Lashkar Gah. "No one needs to tell President Karzai that good government, clean government are absolutely essential to Afghanistan's future. He said that to us," Miliband said. Frustration with Karzai's government over deteriorating security, corruption and crime is growing among Afghans. British and American officials have been pressing Karzai to get tough on bribery rackets in central and local government and the judiciary that push local people towards Taliban militants. Violence has surged in Afghanistan in the past 18 months, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. The Taliban are especially active in the southern provinces where British troops are based. A total of 64 British soldiers have been killed there. DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY Karzai agreed he faced huge challenges to weed out corruption and especially to calm Afghanistan's lawless southern regions, which are being infiltrated by militants from Pakistan. He has also recognised he has huge task extending his government's remit, or some form of democratic accountability, to areas previously ruled by the Taliban or tribal leaders. The two men met as violence flared on the Pakistan border, a tribal area and hotbed of support for al Qaeda-linked militants, and as Karzai's government struggled with foreign hostage crises. British officials fear the consequences if NATO's mission in fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda-linked insurgents and efforts to extend government control to lawless areas should fail. Miliband met British military and government officials trying to bring security to Helmand and extend democracy. More than 6,500 people have been killed in the past year-and-a-half and violence has disrupted development projects Britain sees as vital to securing Afghan "hearts and minds". "People go to the Taliban to avoid getting assassinated by the Taliban," said one British government official based at Lashkar Gah. "People are having to deal with the Taliban, to make deals with them to ensure their security."
