AFGHANISTAN: Foreign troops will be in Afghanistan until at least the end of 2010, according to a plan agreed at an international conference which began yesterday in London.
Representatives from almost 70 countries backed the plan to try to secure peace in Afghanistan, where attacks by the Taliban and other groups have been increasing, and to rebuild a country ruined by 27 years of intense conflict.
About 1,600 people were killed in attacks last year.
John Reid, the British defence secretary, announced last week that the British contingent of 1,000 in Afghanistan is to rise to 5,700 this summer in what he described as the start of a three-year deployment.
But the document agreed in London yesterday, the Afghan Compact, says that the international force will promote security and stability in all regions of Afghanistan "through [ to] end-2010". It says that, by then, the Afghan government is aiming to have established a force of its own of about 70,000.
The London conference is a follow-up to the Bonn conference in 2001 which took place after the US-led overthrow of the Taliban and set a five-year plan for Afghanistan, including elections.
The two-day London conference, which sets out the next stage, is being hosted by Tony Blair, UN secretary general Kofi Annan and Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, also attended.
As well as setting goals, participants in the conference pledged new funds for Afghanistan.
Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, promised an extra £455 million (€667 million) a year from Britain over the next five years.
Dr Rice said the US administration planned to ask congress for $1 billion (€820 million) in aid for the country next year, similar to the amount given in 2006.
Goals agreed by the conference include the disbandment of all illegal armed groups by the end of 2007 in all provinces. That is ambitious given the number of warlords still operating in Afghanistan with private armies, some of whom are in the government but who refuse to disband.
The plan is also short on details and time-related goals for the eradication of poppy crops, the biggest problem confronting the Afghan government and international forces. It concentrates on the continuing fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda elements.
Mr Straw said the West's existing counternarcotics strategy was "achieving a very great deal". However, he conceded: "The problem is more deep-seated than anybody understood when we began this."
- (Guardian Service)