U.S. says to pledge about $10 billion for Afghans

The United States will pledge about $10 billion in aid for Afghanistan at a donors conference on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she flew to the Paris meeting.

More than six years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime that sheltered al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Afghanistan is afflicted by corruption, the drug trade and daily violence.

The Paris conference, which will gather more than 60 countries as well as 15 international organisations, is intended as a show of support for the Afghan people and a chance to review development and security strategy.

International aid efforts have been criticised for not doing enough to coordinate work among donors, integrate security with development and provide money directly through the Afghan government.

"We will be pledging about $10 billion over approximately a two-year period," Rice told reporters en route to Paris. "That is a strong sign of how committed the United States is not just to the security of Afghan people but to their prosperity and to the functioning of their government."

At the conference, Afghanistan will ask donors to help fund a $50 billion five-year national development plan. In exchange, donors will demand Kabul do more to fight corruption in what is one of the world's poorest states.

"There are concerns about corruption in Afghanistan and they are well-founded," Rice said. "We have to remember that this was a completely broken state, a completely failed state, really, and it's going to take some time to ... build the institutions that can provide law and order."

A U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday that the U.S. pledge would be roughly $10 billion out of total donor commitments pledges that he expected to be more than $15 billion.

The World Bank will maintain its aid to Afghanistan steady at $1.1 billion over five years but will press Kabul to improve its tax system and fight corruption, a senior official said on Wednesday.



PAKISTAN PROTESTS

Rice said security and development were inextricably linked in Afghanistan, where the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) of some 53,000 troops is helping Afghan authorities fight a Taliban insurgency that has killed 11,000 people in the last two years alone.

The United States has a further 14,000 troops in Afghanistan outside ISAF whose mission is to pursue al Qaeda in the mountainous eastern region that borders Pakistan.

Pakistan lodged a strong protest with the United States on Wednesday over what it called an unprovoked and cowardly air strike by U.S. forces in Afghanistan that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers at a border post.

They died in the Mohmand region, opposite Afghanistan's Kunar province, late on Tuesday as U.S. coalition forces in Afghanistan battled militants attacking from Pakistan, a Pakistani security official said.

The Pentagon defended U.S. forces, saying initial indications pointed to a "legitimate strike" carried out in self-defence after they came under attack.

Rice, who will meet Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Paris, played down U.S. misgivings about the new Pakistani government's proposed peace pact with Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, based in South Waziristan.

U.S. and NATO commanders share doubts about the utility of negotiations with tribal leaders to try to quell Taliban and al Qaeda violence near the border.

She also made clear the United States is looking at how to help Pakistan grapple with its economic problems, which have been exacerbated by the rise in global fuel and food prices.

"They face a lot of economic challenges," she said. "We do want to look at what more we can do to help."