Paris, June 29: Focussing their attention on reconstruction and security issues, French President Jacques Chirac and his Afghani counterpart Hamid Karzai discussed the developments taking place in the war-torn country towards the establishment of a democratic regime. Karzai, who arrived here on Friday, informed Chirac about preparations for the presentation to the Afghan Assembly next October of a draft Constitution which he hopes will be accepted to pave the way for elections in Afghanistan in June 2004, French official sources said after the talks here.
Chirac said that he welcomed the efforts of Karzai "to restore peace and stability" to his country, Chirac's spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said. The democratic reform process is an "indispensable step" to rebuilding Afghanistan and France has backed and will continue to actively support this process, Chirac was reported as saying.
On economic questions, France expressed its commitment to maintaining economic support for Afghanistan besides focussing on three essential sectors: education, health and the preservation of patrimony. Excluding humanitarian and security aid, France allocated 36 million Euros to help Afghanistan in 2002 and the French authorities have said they will maintain aid at the level of about 30 million Euros this year.
On the security side, France has a three-fold contribution that includes troop deployments on two levels and a training program for the fledging Afghan Army. Bureau Report