Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende made a surprise visit to Dutch troops in Afghanistan on Tuesday, and was to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the government said. Balkenende's Cabinet will decide within a few weeks whether to extend Dutch participation in the NATO mission in Afghanistan when the two-year mandate of its 2,000-strong force ends in August next year, the Associated Press reported. Ten Dutch soldiers have died so far since the troops were sent last year to the southern province of Uruzgan. Also attending the meeting with Karzai was the Dutch junior foreign affairs minister, Bert Koenders, who is pressing donor nations, the U.N. and the World Bank to pay more attention to reconstruction, especially in the areas of law enforcement, human rights, and combating poverty and corruption. «In deciding whether the Netherlands will extend its military mission past the summer of 2008, civil aspects will play an important role,» Koenders said in a statement Monday. Koenders' office announced ¤15 million (US$20 million) in new donations to build up Afghanistan's police forces, ¤3 million (US$4 million) for improving the quality of girls' education, and ¤13 million (US$18 million) for agricultural development and small loans to farmers and small businesses in Uruzgan.
