India offers Afghanistan $10m

India has promised all its help to Mr Karzai

India has pledged immediate assistance worth $10m to Afghanistan following a meeting between the leaders of the two countries.

It follows an earlier Indian grant of $100m pledged during the Afghan donors' conference in Japan.

India stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghanistan and its friendly people in their hour of need

Indian PM Atal Behari Vajpayee

Hamid Karzai, the head of Afghanistan's interim administration, met Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during his first visit to the country since taking charge in Kabul.

The last time Mr Karzai was in India was more than three decades ago when he was a student in the northern Indian city of Simla.

This time he is seeking urgent assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan.

Assistance

The Indian prime minister told Mr Karzai he would do everything to help.

The Afghan leader has been on a hectic round of diplomacy

"India stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghanistan and its friendly people in their hour of need," Mr Vajpayee said.

Earlier, Mr Karzai received a ceremonial welcome at India's presidential palace where he was greeted by Mr Vajpayee.

"India and all other neighbours can contribute towards stability and peace in Afghanistan so that the people of the country are able to get a responsible government," he told journalists there.

Mr Karzai also pledged to continue fighting terrorism "until it is finished".

"Afghanistan has suffered unbelievably due to the two twin forces of terrorism and extremism," he said.

Seeking investment

Mr Karzai's delegation includes Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and other key ministers from planning, information, rehabilitation and reconstruction, commerce and other areas where Afghanistan has been seeking India's help.

On Tuesday, Mr Karzai was hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry, where he urged India's leading industrialists to invest in his country.

Two decades of war had done nothing to dim the Afghan entrepreneurial spirit, he said.

Apart from a team of Indian doctors stationed in Kabul for the last three months, a delegation of Indian businessmen has also visited Afghanistan with an eye on investment opportunities.

India has historical ties to Afghanistan and is home to some 30,000 Afghan refugees.

But during the five-year Taleban regime, India backed its opponent, the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance.

Since the fall of the Taleban, Delhi has moved swiftly to re-establish its relationship by re-opening its embassy and offering financial and material help.