United Nations Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan has arrived in Afghanistan for an historic visit.
Mr Annan, who is the first UN secretary general to visit Afghanistan since 1959, arrived at the newly reopened Kabul International Airport from Islamabad, where he had held talks with Pakistani leaders.
He will review international efforts to reconstruct the country amid rising security concerns.
His visit coincides with increasing reports of factional fighting and tensions and a US special forces raid. The raid in the south of the country killed over a dozen mostly Afghan fighters and captured 27 suspected Taliban or al-Qaeda members.
In Kabul Mr Annan is due to talks tp interim Afghan leader Mr Hamid Karzai, who returned from an overseas trip. The UN chief is also to visit a girls' school and hold a press conference in the afternoon before flying to Iran.
The visit is part of a short regional tour in which he is aiming to bolster both international and Afghan commitment to bringing peace and stability to the nation.
His visit also comes in the wake of the goodwill generated by the international donor's conference in Tokyo earlier this week, which produced pledges of $4.5 billion in aid for Afghanistan over five years.
"I hope we can count on sustained international support, sustained not only in terms of financial and material terms but also political and moral support," Mr Annan said in Islamabad before his departure for Afghanistan.
Mr Francesc Vendrell, deputy to the UN special envoy to Afghanistan, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, said the visit would also offer encouragement to the interim administration.
"It [the visit] will probably confirm that this is going to be . . . possibly the largest task the United Nations has ever undertaken in terms of the size of the country and the numbers of the population".
AFP