Clinton arrives in Kabul ahead of conference

News Paper: DAWN
Monday, 19 Jul, 2010 

KABUL: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Kabul Monday for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai ahead of an international conference on the future of the war-torn country.

Clinton was due to meet Karzai on Monday evening, as well as the new commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus.

The conference, starting on Tuesday, aims to chart a future of peace and development for Afghanistan and show supporters the country is acting on past pledges.

“An enormous amount of ... preparation has been done by the Afghans. They have a good team working on it. It's going to be very substantive and demonstrate more Afghan leadership,” Clinton said during her flight to Kabul.

The meeting is being billed as a bid by the Afghan government to follow a process of transition from dependence on Western backers to running the country alone and responsibly after tens of thousands of US-led Nato troops go home.

Karzai and UN chief Ban Ki-moon are to chair the conference, and Ban urged the Afghan leader to unveil “concrete” steps to improve governance and promote national reconciliation.

Clinton said all sides had a role to play in fighting corruption. “We've asked for steps to be taken. We also have to get a hard look at ourselves,” she said.

“Our presence, all of our contracting, has fed this problem. It's an international issue. We have to do a better job in channeling our aid.”

-www.dawn.com