December 5, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 19, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: A two-day Afghanistan Support Group’s annual conference will begin in Berlin on Wednesday to coordinate various aid and development initiatives for the country.

According to UN officials, the conference to be held at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany would focus on taking stock of the humanitarian situation on necessary short and medium-term support measures, conditions of refugees, internally displaced persons and those returning from neighbouring countries and as prospects for rebuilding the war-torn country.

United Nations Information Centre Director Eric Falt said that with encouraging responses from international donors, the United Nations was moving fast to consolidate its programme for recovery and rehabilitation of Afghanistan and, in Berlin, it would present an updated donor alert and a preliminary paper on priorities and future steps for a transition programme.

Delegates from the member states of the Afghanistan Support Group and the European Commission will be joined at the conference by representatives from UN agencies and non-governmental organizations.

The conference would be opened by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Other speakers at the opening session of the moot include UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kenzo Oshima, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, International Red Cross President Jakob Kellenberger and UN Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown.

Meetings of the group, founded in 1996, bring together Afghanistan’s 15 principal donor countries, the European Commission and the international organizations active in in the country as well as important non-governmental organizations.