Though the Afghanistan's new head of the state, Hamid Karzai, easily swept the October 9 presidential elections and took oath as first-elected national leader Tuesday, he is still facing huge challenges ahead to cope with.   

A host of daunting challenges, prominent among them, according to observers are Taliban-related militancy, booming illicit drug economy, taming regional leaders and warlords which require the elected administration to deal with on priority basis.

"None of Karzai's ambitious agenda will be fully implemented unless durable security were restored across the country and the durable security will not be established unless Taliban remnants are rooted out and the warlords disarmed," former Afghan diplomat Abdul Haq Waleh observed.

"Our principal promises are ensuring lasting stability throughout the country, elimination of poppy cultivation, fight drug trafficking, disarmament of former combatants, eradication of poverty and provision of public service," a confident Karzai pledged before the nation immediately after taking oath as the head of state.

Remnants of the Taliban whose fundamentalist regime was ousted under a US-led military invasion three years ago have vowed to continue Jihad or holy war until the US-dominated foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

The movement's elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose loyalists have been continuing a guerrilla war since the regime's topple, termed the election as a "drama to legitimize the US occupation of Afghanistan" and insisted to fight till the very last.

Omar, who has escaped the biggest man-hunt conducted by American forces, in a statement released in mid November, renewed his call to go on with Jihad against the Americans.

"America and its puppets should know that we are determined to free and regain the sovereignty of our country," he declared in a message published in Pakistani press on the eve of religious festival Eidul Fitr.

Over 1,000 civilians, Afghan and foreign troops as well as aid workers have been killed in Taliban-related insurgency over the past one year.

"Strengthening democracy and stability links to complete disarmament of warlords and total elimination of Taliban militias otherwise the war-torn nation would remain deprived of durable peace," maintained the US-based veteran analyst Waleh.

He also was of the view that the Taliban activities, warlordism and unabated growth of poppy cultivation are interlinked to sustain a chaotic situation in the post-war nation.

"The Taliban, warlords, drug barons and poppy cultivation are tied to each other as the huge portion of the drug money is flowing to terrorists' pockets to help them keeping on militancy for their benefit," Waleh opined.

Afghanistan with an output of 3,600 tons of opium in 2003 became the single largest producer of the raw material used in heroin manufacturing in the world and the country secured the same position this year as opium product with estimated over 4,000 tones hit all time records.

Director of the UN Office on Drug and Crimes (UNODC) Antonio Maria Costa expressed concern last month that Afghanistan's opium cultivation, having jumped 64 percent to a record 131,000 hectares, the highest drug cultivation in the country's history, is the largest in the world.

"The fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is slowly becoming a reality as corruption in the public sector, the die-hard ambition of local warlords and the collusion of local investors are becoming a factor in Afghan life," Costa warned while briefing reporters on poppy-related challenge in the post-war nation in Brussels.

The Bush Administration also did not hide its concern over the booming illicit drug business in Afghanistan as Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) had confirmed an increase in poppy harvest this year.

"Current cultivation levels equate to a potential production of 4,950 tones of opium," ONDCP director John Walters said in a report in November.

The stigma of growing illicit drug, according to observers, if left unchecked would tarnish the image of a Karzai-led elected government in the comity of nation and ultimately lead to reduction of world's contribution towards rebuilding process of the war-torn central Asian state.  

"In addition to fighting terrorism and eradication of drug menace, the introduction of meritocracy and purging corrupt elements from government departments are other challenges confronting the administration," another analyst and Kabul University professor, Nasrullah Stanikzai, observed.

"Fighting these evils is essential to stability, security and lastly to democracy," Stanikzai said.

During the past three years of interim and transitional periods as well as electioneering, 46-year-old Karzai frequently promised to set up a prosperous weapon-free society based on social justice.

He also pledged to recover the country's impoverished economy and boost the per capita income of the war-stricken people from US$200 to US$500 by the next five years besides rising literacy rate, health facilities and life expectancy.