KABUL - President Hamid Karzai flew to Japan on Saturday to attend the Tokyo conference on Afghanistan, aiming to secure financial pledges amounting to $4 billion in aid.
Karzai will address the delegates from some 70 countries and international agencies on Sunday, the only day of the conference.

The one-day meeting will focus on Afghanistan's economic transition, reviewing its achievements in the past decade and assessing how it will stand on its own following the retreat of NATO troops after 2014.
The World Bank has estimated Afghanistan needs about $3.9 billion a year in aid after 2014 in order for it to adequately cover its needs.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon are also attending.

Clinton made an unannounced visit to Kabul before she headed to Tokyo, speaking at a press conference in Kabul on the importance of the financial pledges for civilian aid.

Afghanistan's cash-strapped government is heavily dependent on foreign generosity, and any significant drop-off in financial assistance after 2014 could set back the country's development.

"We want to continue to invest in doing in what you believe, you need. That is why it's important to go to Tokyo together to discuss the next stages for investment in what has been called the transformation decade. We will continue, of course, to protect Afghanistan from any efforts by insurgents and outsiders to destabilize Afghanistan," she said in Kabul on Saturday. (Tolo News)