Afghanistan's police force is only slightly more popular than the Taliban in the insurgent heartlands of the south, according to a survey commissioned by the UN.

The
results of the poll, published today, portrayed a police force widely
viewed by Afghans as corrupt and biased, underscoring doubts about a
planned Nato handover. About half the 5,052 Afghans surveyed across all
34 provinces said they would report crime elsewhere.

The findings
represent a blow to western efforts to extend the reach of the central
government and its security forces to areas under the sway of the
Taliban, particularly in the south, which has borne the brunt of Nato
and US military operations to drive back insurgents.

Building the
police force and entrenching it in rural areas is crucial to a planned
security transition to the Afghan army and police this year, and the
gradual withdrawal of 150,000 US and Nato troops by the end of 2014.

Nationwide,
79% of Afghans said they had a favourable opinion of the police,
unchanged from 2009, and most Afghans said their personal security was
improving.

But in the south, the popularity of the police has
dropped over the past year from 67% to 48%. There, the police fared only
slightly better than the Taliban. Only 13% of Afghans nationwide have a
favourable opinion of the Taliban, but the figure is 40% in the south.

The
Afghan Centre for Socioeconomic and Opinion Research, which conducted
the survey last November, said sharp regional differences in views of
the police marked the fractured nature of the security situation in
Afghanistan.

Violence across the country is at its worst since the
overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, with the insurgency spreading from
its southern and eastern strongholds to the north and west.

Nationwide,
60% of Afghans reported a significant level of corruption among police
officers, and a quarter reported police favouritism on the basis of
personal connections in the investigating of crimes.

The results
suggested "a reluctance to engage" with the police, the report said.
Fewer than a third of Afghans see the police as very well trained,
equipped and prepared to take over security responsibility from Nato-led
forces.