KABUL - The international community has vowed $18 billion in assistance to Afghanistan and his administration would do its best to use the aid in a proper way, President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday.
At a press conference in Kabul, the president said $16 billion were pledged in aid at this week's Tokyo Conference for the next four years. More than 70 countries and international organizations attended the donors' meeting.
However, Karzai said the actual assistance to the war-torn nation during the period could reach $18 billion, because some of the countries could not announce multi-year aid under domestic fiscal laws.
About corruption in spending donors' money, he said the government was not a milking cow for everyone. Instead, it would take effective measures to curb corruption in the country, he added.
"I'm mulling over a series of measures against administrative graft and you will see them in the near future," the president said, without elaborating on the steps.
"The administrative affairs department has prepared decrees regarding reform in the government. As I go to my office, I will read and sign them," he added.
Regarding compromises, Karzai said he would go for expediency only if it was in the national interest. He urged his political foes to come together to solve the problems facing the country.
He once again called Taliban fighters "brothers" and urged them to shun the insurgency and take part in the reconstruction of their homeland. He asked Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Omar to abandon violence to be able to have the chance of contesting the presidential vote.
"I renew my offer of talks to all Afghans, those who aren't the puppets of others and have (only) issues with us at home. Mullah Omar can come to Afghanistan anywhere he wants to. He can open a political office but he should leave the gun."
Karzai said: "We are not fighting against them, but they are fighting against us. If the militants kill Afghan security personnel and children and burn schools to please outsiders, we would continue war on them for centuries," he hastened to warn. (Pajhwok)