Afghanistan received promises of economic and military support from Western nations in London today in return for pledges to fight corruption and the illegal opium trade.
Four years after the US-backed invasion toppled the Taliban regime, Afghanistan remains one of the world's poorest countries and security is a major obstacle to development.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz arrives for the London Conference on Afghanistan
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the transformation of Afghanistan from tyranny to democracy was a monumental achievement and an example of what the world could achieve if it worked together.
Ms Rice said President Bush would seek approval for an extra $1.1 billion of aid for the Afghan people in the next year - on top of annual US aid to the country of nearly $6 billion - and Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged £500 million over the next three years.
But a Taliban leader condemned the gathering as an "American drama and stage show" and warned that the Taliban would continue attacking Western forces in the country.
Moreover, a former Afghan minister said billions of dollars of aid that have poured into the country have done little to improve people's lives, and that sweeping personnel changes in government and aid agencies were needed.
Afghanistan's former planning minister Ramazan Bashardost
"The people are asking themselves 'if these billions of dollars have been donated, which of our pains have they remedied, what ointment has been put on our wounds,'" former planning minister Ramazan Bashardost said in Kabul.
Fifty-one countries, 12 international bodies and 17 observers are attending the two-day conference in London.
Nato is preparing to double the size of its force in Afghanistan to 18,000 from 9,000 and expand into the dangerous south while the United States cuts its troop levels. Britain announced last week it would send an additional 3,300 troops.
Afghanistan is the world's biggest source of illicit opium, and its refined heroin accounts for about 87 per cent of global supply. Many farmers depend on revenue from the drug.
President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday it would take 10 to 15 years to develop alternative sources of income for farmers and eliminate opium from Afghanistan.