KABUL (Reuters/AFP) - The Taliban in Afghanistan warned on Thursday it would attempt to derail next months presidential election, calling on Afghans to boycott the poll and urging them to join the trenches of jihad. Afghan and foreign troops are battling a growing Taliban-led insurgency across Afghanistan, with attacks escalating after thousands of US and British troops launched major operations in southern Helmand province this month. The increased violence coincides with campaigning for the Aug 20 poll, the second direct vote for president since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. A statement issued by the Talibans leadership council and posted on a website it uses (www.alemarah1.net), said the election was a US invention and urged voters to join them instead of taking part in a poll it labelled a farce. All fighters should strongly focus on making this process fail ... strike the enemys bases and stop people from taking part in the election, the statement, in Pashtu, said. All Afghans, due to their Islamic and national sentiments, need to totally boycott this seductive US process and ... join the trenches of jihad, it said. The militia ordered its fighters to block all roads on the eve of presidential ballot, in order to stop voters from going to polling stations. To achieve real independence instead of going to fake election centres, they must go to jihadi trenches, and through resistance and jihad they must free their invaded country from the invaders, it said. It called for attacks on enemy centres, understood to refer mainly to bases of Western and Afghan forces. The Taliban did not, however, directly order strikes on voting centres, according to an e-mailed copy of the Pashtu-language statement seen by AFP. Fighters must launch operations against enemy centres, said the statement from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the self-styled name of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, which was overthrown by US-led troops. They must prevent people from attending the elections and one day before the elections all roads and highways must be totally closed to government and civilian vehicles, and they must inform people, it said. Thursdays statement was released two days after the top UN official in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, urged the Taliban not to disrupt the elections and acknowledged there were significant security concerns. The UN electoral assistance team noted attacks on campaign teams, cases of intimidation and the assassinations of three candidates for the provincial council election to be held alongside the presidential vote. The Taliban accused Karzai of not having the courage to stand up to the Americans. There was no immediate comment from the presidential palace in response to the Talibans statement. The statement by the Taliban said all roads should be blocked before polling takes place and voters told about the plan to disrupt the election. The statement came just three days after the Afghan government said it had struck a truce deal with the Taliban in northwestern Badghis province after mediation by tribal elders The Taliban have denied there was any truce. The Badghis deal was meant to allow candidates to campaign in the province and voters to cast their ballots safely. Zekriya Barakzai, deputy chief of the government-appointed election commission, said on Thursday tribal elders in other areas were being asked to help mediate similar deals. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in a speech in Brussels, stressed the need for reintegration and for a long-term political solution to separate Taliban foot soldiers from those committed to violent global jihad.