US President Barack Obama's Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard C Holbrooke has claimed that rampant corruption in Afghanistan is providing the Taliban with its number one recruiting tool.

The New York Times quoted Holbrooke, as saying that in the light of this, Washington was taking adequate precautions to cut down the misuse of aid to Afghanistan.

"If you read Taliban propaganda, which we study very carefully, they never mention the issue of women, girls in school, because that was their most losing issue. What they talk about is corruption, which is why we're here. That's their No. 1 recruiting tool. We're not missing money," Holbrooke said at a hearing of the House subcommittee that oversees financing of the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development.

Holbrooke acknowledged that some of the money probably came from illegal activities like drug trafficking. He said corruption was still endemic in Afghanistan, describing it as a "malignancy" that could destroy everything the United States was trying to achieve there. (ANI)