November 15, 2001	Thursday	Shaba’an 28, 1422

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UNITED NATIONS, Nov 14: The UN special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, said on Tuesday that he wanted to revive the Group of 21 nations to help chart the future strategy for the conflict-stricken region.

Group is composed of Pakistan, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Britain, the United States and Uzbekistan.

The group is likely to replace the more narrowly focused Six- plus-Two group tracking the Afghan crisis in the past. Six-plus-Two consists of Afghanistan’s six neighbours plus Russia and the United States.

Recently, Mr Brahimi had described the Six-plus-Two group as useless. While its members collectively backed peace, their unity tended to break down over the interests of particular Afghan factions. In addition, other governments complained they felt frozen out of the picture.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the sustained engagement of the Security Council would be needed “if we are to help set Afghanistan on the path to a stable and lasting peace, and address the dire humanitarian needs of the Afghan people.”

Among the challenges lying ahead, Mr Annan stressed, everything must be done to help meet the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people, who have suffered from decades of conflict, repression, drought and famine.