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QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 29 (AFP) - The US must stockpile body bags if American troops try to launch a ground assault on the Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar, according to a recruiter of jihad fighters.

Thousands of Taliban fighters in Kandahar city are bracing themselves for the arrival of the Americans while many more are hiding out in the mountains around the Islamic militia's southern stronghold, said Abu Usama, Baluchistan provincial chief of the Islamic group Markezaldawa Irshad Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is one of the most hardline Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan.

It has launched attacks against Indian security forces in the Muslim-majority Himalayan state of Kashmir, at times involving fanatical suicide squads believed to have been trained in Afghanistan.

Recruits are trained in how to use a Kalashnikov, how to use bombs, rocket launchers and mines, according to Usama.

He told AFP that offers by his organisation to send more jihad fighters to Afghanistan had been rejected by the Taliban.

"They do not need any more. There are many, many thousands of Taliban ready to save Kandahar," he said.

"There are more in the mountains, not just in Kandahar but in Kabul, Jalalabad...

"There is a very strong chance that if the American commandos reach Kandahar there will be many dead bodies in the streets.

"There is no chance that they (the Taliban) will withdraw. They want to fight for Kandahar against their enemies."

Despite the death of many foreign jihad fighters at the hands of Northern Alliance troops and the US-led bombing campaign in Afghanistan, Usama insisted that there was no shortage of Muslims ready to give up their life for what they saw as a just cause.

"They feel it is their duty to fight against these terrorist forces (who are) against Islam and Islamic government."

Taliban control of Kandahar province has appeared increasingly tenuous over the last few days.

The militia lost control of Takhtapul district over the weekend, cutting off the main road from Kandahar city to the Afghan-Pakistan border. There have also been reports that it has lost control of the border town of Spin Boldak.

But Usama, a frequent visitor to Kandahar during the seven weeks of US bombings, said that the Taliban would seize back control of areas that it had lost.

"Those tribals who control the road from Kandahar to Spin Boldak are very weak. They are not belonging to the Northern Alliance and the other tribals in the area are against those people."

Usama said that, in the absense of a request for help from the Taliban, his fighters would now concentrate their efforts on forcing the Indian government to relinquish its hold on Kashmir.

"We are fighting against the Indian terrorist army. Inshallah (God willing) we will continue our fight."

India voiced fears on Tuesday that that members of the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden would flee to Kashmir following the fall of the Taliban regime, its ambassador to France Kanwal Sibal said on Tuesday.

"A movement by the terrorists towards Kashmir is always possible," India's ambassador to France Kanwal Sibal.

More than 35,000 people have died since a Muslim insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989.

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