Awwal 03, 1432 H/Feb 06, 2011, SPA -- The president of Afghanistan said on Sunday he would announce the start of a process to transfer the responsibility for security to Afghan forces from international forces on March 21. NATO agreed with President Hamid Karzai at a summit in November to begin the handover to Afghan forces this year with the aim of completing the process by the end of 2014, Reuters reported. The Western military alliance has said it hopes to launch the process, which is aimed at a gradual reduction of the 150,000 foreign troops in the country, next month. Karzai told an international security conference in Munich that the Afghan government was determined to show leadership, adding: "I will announce the first phase of transition on the Afghan New Year, which is the 21st of March." Karzai said this had been made possible by a big effort to boost the size of the Afghan security forces. NATO has stressed that transition will be a gradual process, district by district and province by province, and will depend on security conditions. NATO initially planned to start the handover at the end of last year. But this was hampered by slow progress in building up Afghan forces and by an increase in insurgent violence, which hit its worst levels since 2001.
