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Karzai Calls for More Aid for Afghanistan

STAFF | Agence France-Presse | April 11, 2004

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on Sunday for more international money to help rebuild his war-ravaged country and admitted he was frustrated that Iraq was getting much more."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on Sunday for more international money to help rebuild his war-ravaged country and admitted he was frustrated that Iraq was getting much more.

"We'd be happier if we had more money," he told Britain's Jonathan Dimbleby programme to be aired later today on ITV television.

Asked if he was frustrated that Iraq was getting so much more he said: "In those terms yes. But we cannot be ungrateful. We are grateful to the international community for help."

Karzai said he was happy with the funds the international community was giving Iraq, but "if they give us more we will be happier".

"It's building a country that's in the interests of all. It's building a security institution that is in the interest of all. So eventually we all suffer together or we all are happy together," he said.

"For that reason the more the world gives to Afghanistan, the better will be the rest of the world."

Donor nations pledged more than eight billion dollars over three years in aid for Afghanistan at an international conference in Berlin that ended on April 1.

At the Madrid donor conference last October, Iraq secured pledges of $33 billion in loans and grants, which included $18.6 billion promised previously by the United States. But the amount fell short of an estimated $56 billion that Iraq needs through 2007.

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