The United Nations' new top envoy to Afghanistan took up his position in Kabul on Friday. In a first statement, Kai Eide, Special Representative of the Secretary General vowed to step up support for Afghanistan's government, according to dpa. "Afghanistan has been calling for stronger coordination of international assistance - we need to better respond to this demand," he said. "The Security Council has now sharpened our mandate to meet the needs of Afghanistan's people and government." Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, got the job after former British politician Lord Paddy Ashdown was rejected by Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. "I come to Afghanistan with the utmost respect for its people, religion and history and I am grateful for the support and confidence of President Karzai and the international community," Eide was quoted as saying in the statment released by the UN office in Kabul. While in the past there had been much focus on the security situation, this needed to be balanced with the political dimension of the UN's work "to deliver much needed peace, stability and visible progress for all the peoples of Afghanistan," he said. The statement said that Eide would meet with Karzai and other key members of cabinet in the coming days. He is scheduled to attend in the NATO summit on Afghanistan in Bucharest next week.
