Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday appealed to the international community to provide long-term aid for his struggling country, DPA reported. The most important needs were energy and agriculture, he told the representatives of 67 nations and 17 international organizations gathered at a conference in Paris to give his government a political and financial boost. Karzai also asked donor nations to better coordinate aid with his government in Kabul. "Parallel structures exist currently that hinder the establishment of Afghan institutions," he said. The Afghan president also said that security remained his country's most important challenge. He has put forward a five-year plan for economic and infrastructure reconstruction which will require 50 billion dollars to realize. The US government is hoping that the conference will raise at least 15 billion dollars for Kabul, of which Washington was expected to donate 10 billion dollars. French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the conference by promising to more than double French aid to Afghanistan, to 107 million euros (166 million dollars) over three years, the money to be used on public health and agriculture.
