Anayone remember a place called Afghanistan?

Afghanistan, the big "oops?"Berlin hosts key Afghan aid talks
The US is reinforcing its military presence in Afghanistan
Officials from 60 nations are gathering in Berlin for a conference to discuss development aid for Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to ask the two-day meeting for $27.5bn over the next seven years.

But analysts say the amount pledged in will be much less - with Afghan officials admitting that they will be lucky to get even half of that sum.

The UN has warned that Afghanistan is in danger of reverting to chaos unless it received sufficient foreign aid.

Without it, the UN says that war-ravaged Afghanistan - one of the world's poorest countries - could become entirely dependent on the illegal drugs trade.

Since the fall of the Taleban regime at the end of 2001, development has been slow, with insecurity making much of the south-east Afghanistan off-limits to the world community.

'Afghan plan'

The Berlin conference follows a first donor conference held in Japan in 2002 and will consider a report submitted by the Afghan government and institutions like the World Bank.

Most Afghans live on less than $2 a day, aid agencies say

Afghan leaders hope that one of their most convincing arguments in Berlin will be a simple comparison between how much it cost to secure Afghanistan and the price tag for rebuilding the country, the BBC's Crispin Thorold in Kabul says.

Military and peacekeeping operations in the country cost the world community more than $13bn a year, he says, but for just under $28bn spread over seven years, the government in Kabul believes it could transform Afghanistan.

The Afghan finance ministry says physical security will come with financial stability - but officials stress that the country is not able to recover without massive new commitment from the world community.

That was the message President Karzai tried to convey during his talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin on Tuesday.

"We have a plan for Afghanistan to take our country by the year 2014 to higher income per capita, a higher state of legitimacy, a direct democracy for our people and more stability and peace," President Karzai said after the meeting.

He said his government wanted to create "an Afghanistan that will no longer be a burden on the shoulders of the world... an Afghanistan that will be able to pay for itself".

'Credible message'

But for now that vision seems a long way off, our correspondent says.


The government is functioning again... you have four million kids in school again, you have health posts functioning in every district in the country
David Lockwood, UNDP

The Taleban has regained footholds in many southern areas of the country.

There have also been serious outbreaks of factional fighting in other parts of the country, with the central government controlling only the capital.

The Afghan government has been forced to delay presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for June until September because of security concerns and problems with voter registration.

UN envoy to Afghanistan Jean Arnault said donors' pledges would depend on "what signal the country will send to the international community".

Mr Arnault said that if Kabul's message was credible, the world would follow it.

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