January 23, 2002	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 8, 1422

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BEIJING, Jan 22: Hamid Karzai, leader of the interim Afghan government, will discuss peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan during talks with Chinese leaders, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

“Both sides will discuss how to help Afghanistan to restore peace and rebuild the country,” foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said of Karzai’s two-day visit, beginning on Wednesday.

“The whole of Central Asia are close neighbours to China and we are always paying attention to the situation there,” he said.

Karzai, who is expected to meet President Jiang Zemin in Beijing, will be returning from an international meeting in Tokyo where he won pledges worth US$4.5 billion for the reconstruction of his war-torn country.

China would continue to oppose terrorism in all forms and cooperate with the international community to fight it, he said.

“Maintaining the long-term stability and development in Central Asia not only conforms to the fundamental interests of the region itself and the surrounding countries, but is also conducive to world peace and stability,” he added.

KARZAI UNHURT: A car in which Afghanistan’s interim leader, Hamid Karzai, was riding was involved in an accident on a Tokyo expressway on Tuesday but Karzai was unhurt, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said.

Police were not immediately available to confirm the report.

Karzai was in Tokyo for an international donors conference.—APP/Reuters