Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday hailed the progress his country has made since forming a new government a year ago, but a new outburst of fighting showed how fragile the situation remains in Afghanistan.
Karzai was in the former German capital Bonn with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and officials from other nations to mark a December 2001 agreement on a new post-Taleban government.
"A year ago, an agreement was signed here that provided a road map to the creation of a government that will have legitimacy both at home and abroad," Karzai said.
"We are proud to have adhered to the major milestones of the Bonn Agreement so far."
Inside Afghanistan, rival commanders clashed close to a key air base, the leader of one faction said, a day after a US B-52 bombed one of the sides.
As rival forces battled in the western part of the country, three people were killed and five wounded in a gun battle between police and fighters of a military commander in the southern city of Kandahar.
In Sunday's battle, the US B-52 bomber attacked one of the factions that had opened fire on a patrol of US special forces.
US officials estimate that about 80 per cent of Afghanistan is now pacified, although fighting against remnants of the Taleban and al Qaeda network continues in other parts of the country.
Yesterday's talks in Bonn focused on assuring Afghanistan that its path to recovery continues.
Despite pledges of $US4.5 ($NZ9.11) billion from international donors to help rebuild Afghanistan over five years, reconstruction efforts are still in the earliest stages and life in the country remains difficult and uncertain.
A United Nations force patrols the capital Kabul, but rival regional warlords have stepped into the power vacuum in the countryside, giving rise to widespread perceptions among Afghans that the central government has weakened.
"Administrative and financial reforms will make a substantial contribution to the creation of security," Karzai said.
"But the precondition for these reforms is an overhaul of the security sector and creation of a national army and national police force that would be the instruments for implementing the decisions of a legitimate government."
"Clearly, we face a major set of challenges."
Over two weeks in Bonn last November and December, Afghan officials, guided by the UN and lobbied by the United States, set out a road map for the country's future. It included an interim government headed by then Pashtun tribal leader Karzai.
Afghanistan says it still needs a lot of money to rebuild, but officials say the Bonn conference will not pledge new funds.
Washington is hoping, though, that nations at the meeting will forgive Afghanistan's $US47 million of debt to international institutions and open the way to significant new loans.
- REUTERS
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