Nations unite to rebuild Afghanistan

Houses will be rebuilt and electricty and water restored

The United States and other countries have promised a quick start to the task of reconstructing Afghanistan.

Representatives of 21 countries, as well as the World Bank, the European Union and the Islamic Development Bank, made the commitment after discussions in Washington.

We are going to have an enormous obligation... to not leave the Afghan people in the lurch, and not to walk away as has been done in the past

US Secretary of State Colin Powell

The talks, hosted by the US and Japan, began the process of assessing Afghanistan's most pressing post-war needs, such as agriculture, water, education and mine clearance.

The BBC's UN correspondent Greg Barrow says the cost of the reconstruction could be as much as $30bn.

In the meantime, the United Nations and Afghanistan's ethnic groups are preparing to meet in the German capital, Berlin, on Monday for their first discussions on building a broad-based government for the country.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell told delegates in Washington: "We must act as fast as we can.

"We are going to have an enormous obligation, not only the United States but the whole international community, to not leave the Afghan people in the lurch, and not to walk away as has been done in the past," he said.

Another senior US official also spoke of the need for what he described as quick-hitting projects designed to show the people of Afghanistan that the world was ready and able to help.

Powell: We must act as fast as we can

The Japanese Government's representative for Afghan issues, Sadako Ogata, said the world should learn from this experience that it was dangerous to let states collapse.

"The threat of terrorism has not been overcome," said Ms Ogata, who has spent years trying to bring international aid to Afghanistan.

"The international community must continue to fight for its eradication.

"One lesson we have learnt is that we should not allow the continued existence of a failed or destitute country that could turn into a hotbed of terrorism."

Seed for farmers

American and Japanese officials said the steering group would hold another meeting in Europe in mid-December, to be followed toward the end of January by a larger ministerial meeting in Japan.

The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the UN Development Program will also convene a reconstruction meeting next week in Islamabad, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

The plan hopes to repatriate refugees

"At that meeting, they will begin to work even more on a very detailed needs assessment that eventually will result in looking for funding," Mr Boucher said.

US officials cited projects that could bring rapid results.

These included providing seed for farmers, repatriating refugees from Iran and Pakistan, rebuilding schools, hiring women as teachers, repairing the electricity and water supply and fixing roads.

Desperate for peace

In Berlin, about 30 representatives from four different Afghan political factions plan to attend a gathering to discuss the war-torn country's political future.

The UN special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, hopes Monday's gathering will decide the make-up of a small, transitional authority to take control in the Afghan capital Kabul and fill the power vacuum left by the Taleban's fall.

But BBC correspondent Owen Bennett Jones said Afghans themselves are not optimistic about success.

"Conditions in Kabul are atrocious and they are desperate for peace

"But they do not have much confidence in their leaders.

"They fear that they will just go back to their own fighting ways."

The Taleban have not been invited, said the UN special envoy to Afghanistan, Fransesc Vendrell.

Mr Vendrell said they were a regime "in the process of collapse".

"Their leadership is far too identifiable with al-Qaeda for it to be a representative interlocutor," he told the BBC.