A NATO intelligence official has said that Afghanistan’s neighbours are helping destabilize the country as time is running out on the western efforts to contain Taliban-led militancy. Briefing reporters in Kabul on Monday, the official accused Pakistan and Iran of maintaining links with the Afghan Taliban and singled out Pakistan for providing insufficient pressure on Afghan militant leaders who enjoy safe heavens inside their territory. The official briefing on the condition that his name not be used, described the Taliban as increasingly confident, increasingly effective and growing more cohesive. He said, Taliban has shadow governors in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces who oversee militant operations and collect taxes and bribes. The intelligence officer said the effectiveness of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which he called the surface-to-air missiles of this war, was evidence of the Taliban's ability to evolve tactics to meet improved defences of international troops. He said eighty to ninety per cent of casualties are caused by IEDs, made with ammonium nitrate fertilizer which is rarely used in agriculture in Afghanistan. The intelligence official added that two of the main factories producing ammonium nitrate were located in Pakistan. He admitted the Taliban was often more effective at delivering its message than the NATO-led forces have been. The official said that the violence in Afghanistan will not end until Pakistan eliminates the safe heavens that the Afghan Taliban enjoy. In the end, the intelligence official acknowledged that 2010 would prove critical to the war, adding they have only one year to prove they are demonstrating success.