Karzai calls for Afghan autonomy at international conference

Kabul: President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday reaffirmed his commitment for Afghan police and soldiers to take charge of security nationwide by 2014 and urged his international backers to distribute more of their development aid through the government.

Karzai spoke at a one-day international conference on Afghanistan's future that comes at a critical juncture: Nato and Afghan forces have launched a major operation to drive the Taliban out of their strongholds, and the insurgents are pushing back.

Rockets fired at the Kabul airport on Tuesday forced the diversion of a plane carrying UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sweden's foreign minister.

Karzai said that Afghanistan and its Western allies share "a vicious common enemy".

However, he said, victory will come in giving Afghans as much responsibility as possible in combating the insurgency within its borders. He was flanked by international diplomats including Ban and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, 77 per cent of the $29 billion (Dh282.8 billion) in international aid spent in Afghanistan has been disbursed on projects with little or no input from the government, according to the Afghan Finance Ministry.

Corruption fears

Many donor countries, and particularly the United States, have been reluctant to give an Afghan government infamous for corruption and bloated bureaucracy authority over funds — and so distribute most of their aid through international development groups or contractors.

It is widely believed that graft feeds frustration with the Afghan government and boosts support for the insurgency.