January 10, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 25, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: More than 50 countries, almost all multilateral donors, the United Nations, and Afghanistan’s interim government, will participate in the ministerial-level conference on the Reconstruction of Afghanistan to be held on January 21 and 22 in Tokyo, Dawn learnt from UN officials.

Sources said that the conference is not intended to be a “pledging” conference but to give a political message to the people of Afghanistan and the world that the international community was not backing away from the issues facing Afghanistan.

Dilating on the broad aims, sources said the conference is to deliberate on the issues of tackling the reconstruction of Afghanistan and it is expected that the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Asian Development Bank (ADB) will report the results of its research and surveys conducted on the aid needs of Afghanistan.