KABUL, Jan 27: An independent Afghan weekly newspaper shut down in 1996 by the now-ousted Taliban regime has been relaunched with the aid of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, the editor said on Sunday.

The editor Mohammad Fahim Dashty said the 10-page Kabul Weekly was being funded by Unesco and NGOs including Reporters Sans Frontiers had also given assistance.

Costing just 2,000 afghanis (less than 10 US cents), the tabloid, published in English, French, Dari and Pashto, was accessible to all people in Kabul, Dashty said.

The newspaper, with an initial print run of 2,500, is put together by a staff of 15 with a budget of 120,000 to 130,000 dollars a year, paid by Unesco.

He hoped the staff complement could be increased to 35 and the size of the Kabul Weekly be bumped up to 16 pages.

AINA spokesman in Kabul, Eric Davin, told the media conference that the NGO planned to establish a media centre in Kabul by the end of March. Training in journalism and photography would be offered to Afghans at the centre, he said.

In one article, the director of the Unesco office in Kabul, Martin Hadlow, said Unesco was committed to supporting an independent media in Afghanistan.—AFP