Karzai to attend justice meeting

Mr Karzai will discuss ways to shore up the justice system

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to attend a two-day meeting in Rome aimed at strengthening the rule of law in the war-torn country.

The meeting will also be attended by the secretary-generals of the United Nations and Nato.

It is expected to map out a financing strategy to address concerns about the state of the Afghan justice system.

Access to justice, prison reform and legal training are the other subjects to be discussed at the meeting.

"There needs to be donor commitment," Geralyn Busnardo, an official with the Rome-based International Development Law Organization (IDLO), which has helped rebuild the Afghan judiciary, told the Associated Press news agency.

"We need to have a plan for the next five years, perhaps not necessarily a comprehensive, full-blown strategy, but we need to have some sort of a plan that talks about where we're going to be in five years," she said.

"That was something that was not well done for the past five years."

The IDLO estimates that there are some 1,400 judges in Afghanistan.