12 February 2004	Thursday	20 Zilhaj 1424

BERLIN, Feb 11: A third international Afghanistan conference will be held in Germany next month, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. The meeting will take place in Berlin on March 31 and April 1, said German Foreign Ministry chief spokesman Walter Lindner.

Germany hosted an Afghan conference in December 2001 near Bonn which agreed a transitional government and political roadmap for the country after the overthrow of the Taliban regime.

A second conference in December 2002 agreed setting up an Afghan national army and reviewed compliance with previous agreements. United States officials had expressed doubts over the need for a third conference given that Afghanistan is due to have elections in June, said the Financial Times Deutschland, the paper's German edition.

But Afghan officials and the United Nations pressed for the meeting. Afghanistan's finance minister told leaders of the G7 industrial nations at their Boca Raton, Florida meeting last week that the country needed 28.5 billion dollars in the next seven years.

Donor nations pledged 4.5 billion dollars for Afghanistan at a 2002 conference in Tokyo. -dpa