Associated Press
November 25

Afghanistan's foreign minister will travel to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia this week for talks on regional security and rebuilding his country after two decades of war.

Foreign Minister Abdullah leaves Afghanistan Tuesday for Tajikistan and will travel to Uzbekistan on Wednesday before arriving in the Russian capital of Moscow on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad said Monday.

Abdullah will then fly to Germany for the first anniversary of a key meeting in Bonn which laid out a blueprint for Afghanistan's political future and named President Hamid Karzai as the country's interim leader.

Karzai, who was appointed transitional president in June at a loya jirga, or grand council, in Kabul, will also attend the Bonn meeting.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, the driving force behind the Dec. 2 meeting in Bonn, is due in Kabul on Tuesday for talks with Karzai's administration.

Samad said he hoped the international community would renew aid commitments to Afghanistan during the Bonn conference.

"This ... is another important, historic occasion for the international community and for the new Afghanistan to recommit themselves to the path that was created last year for stability and security and reconstruction in Afghanistan," Samad said.

Samad said about US$2 billion had so far been assigned for reconstructing Afghanistan, but the country needed between US$10 billion and US$15 billion to get back on its feet.

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