UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend the international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn this weekend, a UN spokesman said Friday. The conference, organized by Germany and chaired by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, is intended to draw up programmes for the next 10 years during which Afghans will themselves assume responsibility in security and development matters. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Karzai and other high-ranking government officials attending the meeting in Bonn. Ban will then fly to Durban, South Africa, for the climate change conference attended by parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP-17.
