Standing at the foot of the ruins of a giant Buddha blasted by the Taliban last year, interim Afghan leader Mr Hamid Karzai promised today his government would rebuild the ancient sculpture "as soon as possible."
"It's very sad," Mr Karzai said, shaking his head as dozens of armed soldiers stood guard on steep cliffs above him. "For Afghanistan, it's a national tragedy."
Mr Karzai made the promise soon after arriving in this remote central Afghan city, about 85 miles north-west of Kabul, aboard a Russian-built helicopter.
Around 1,000 people, including scores of women and children in bright purple and blue traditional robes, turned out to hear Mr Karzai. Behind them stood dozens of soldiers on horseback.
The original Buddha statue, and a smaller one, were chiseled into a cliff more than 1,500 years ago in the central Bamiyan Valley on the ancient Silk Route linking Europe and Central Asia.
The Taliban considered the statues "idolatrous" and against the tenets of Islam and blew them up despite an international outcry.