Afghan Leader Outlines Plan as Aid Pledged Anew

LONDON, Jan. 31 -- Diplomats from more than 60 countries began pledging aid and investment for Afghanistan at a conference here Tuesday, as President Hamid Karzai outlined a five-year plan to strengthen democratic institutions and combat terrorism and drug-trafficking in his struggling nation.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that President Bush would ask Congress for $1.1 billion in aid for Afghanistan in next year's budget. U.S. officials declined to detail what that money would be used for, but it is roughly equal to the amount the United States budgeted for Afghanistan reconstruction projects this year.

"The transformation of Afghanistan is remarkable but, of course, still incomplete," Rice said at the opening of the two-day conference. "And it is essential that we all increase our support for the Afghan people."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, hosting the conference, pledged $880 million over the next three years to aid the country, whose transition to democracy remains difficult more than four years after a U.S.-led military campaign drove out the Islamic Taliban militia.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told the gathering in the ornate hall: "Afghanistan is now a nascent democracy. Yet our optimism is necessarily tempered by the serious challenges the country is facing."

The five-year plan known as the Afghan Compact, which will be signed here, is a blueprint to improve governance, the economy and security in the country, which is still trying to recover from years of devastating conflict that began with the invasion by Soviet forces in 1979.

"It is important in order to demonstrate that where people stand up to terrorism and opt for democracy, we will be on their side," Blair said.

Karzai, addressing the gathering Tuesday, listed his country's successes since the Taliban was routed from power two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. He noted that the country has a constitution and an elected president and parliament. He said that 6 million children are now attending schools in a system that was totally collapsed and that economic output has grown by 85 percent.

But Afghanistan remains a place of staggering illiteracy, with a massive gap between a comfortable elite and millions of poor. A flourishing illegal poppy trade supplies more than 87 percent of the world's opium. Karzai acknowledged that "we have a long road ahead."

"On behalf of the Afghan people, I pledge today that we will be a dependable asset to the security of the region and of the world," Karzai said, adding that "a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan is not a blessing for the Afghans alone; it is for all of us."

The London conference follows a 2001 gathering in Bonn that outlined a U.N.-supervised transition to democracy, culminating with the seating of an elected parliament this past December. This week's conference focuses on diverse subjects such as judicial reform and improvements in rural irrigation -- the nuts and bolts of developing institutions.

On the drug issue, the compact calls for tougher enforcement and economic alternatives for poppy farmers, who are often tempted into the illegal trade because it pays so much better than traditional crops. The document also says the government will "reinforce the message that producing or trading opiates is both immoral and a violation of Islamic law."