The Associated Press
01/27/2004
By

KABUL  - An international conference seeking more money for rebuilding Afghanistan is scheduled for March in Germany, the Afghan government said Tuesday.

President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Jawid Luddin, said the government would seek about $30 billion for reconstruction in the next 8-10 years.

The conference venue has yet to be finalized, but it could be in the former German capital, Bonn, on March 8-9, Luddin said.

The German Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment.

The United Nations (news - web sites) had proposed a follow-up to the conference in Bonn in December 2001 that launched the war-ravaged country's two-year peace initiative, saying the process needed new impetus.

But while the world body has suggested a gathering to review the country's fragile political and security situation, Luddin said it would deal solely with rebuilding its economy.

The first Bonn conference installed Karzai as interim leader. It also included plans for peacekeeping forces to fan out across the country and for regional factions to be disarmed before national elections.

But NATO (news - web sites)-led peacekeepers began only this month to expand beyond the capital, Kabul, and only a fraction of the country's armed fighters have given up their weapons.

Elections are scheduled for June, although the United Nations has warned they may be delayed because of continuing violence that has killed more than 60 people this month alone.

The United Nations has also pressed for reform of Karzai's government, which includes several leaders of the Northern Alliance faction that helped U.S. forces drive out the Taliban two years ago.