U.S. Senator Joseph Biden says the United States should send peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan after the end of the current U.S. mission of hunting down terrorists in that country.

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says the United States must take the lead in ensuring that Afghanistan does not revert to the bloody fractional conflict that has raged there for most of the past two decades.

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington Monday, Senator Biden said "history will judge us harshly if we allow the hope of a liberated Afghanistan to evaporate because we failed to stay the course."

He said the failure to establish a solid national government in Afghanistan could create what he called a "lawless safe haven for anti-American terrorists." He said a secure Afghanistan is imperative to U.S. national security.

President Bush has said he has no intention of allowing U.S. troops to participate in a peacekeeping role in Afghanistan. Instead, the president says the United States will help Afghanistan build an army and national police force.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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