July 04, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 29, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 3: A senior UN official called on Thursday for Afghanistan’s neighbours to work towards mending tense regional relationships so that the conflict-torn country could be rebuilt.

Kai Eide, head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, is seeking to expand the world body’s role in areas such as regional economic cooperation and cross-border infrastructure.

Eide, on his first visit to Islamabad since his appointment in March, said his priority was to harness the momentum from an international conference in Paris last month when donors pledged more than $20 billion in additional aid for Afghanistan.

Other areas where regional cooperation is needed include combating Afghanistan’s runaway illegal narcotics industry and its raging Taliban-led insurgency.

Eide said the UN was ready to facilitate “constructive” regional ties and that the reaction of Pakistani leaders in meetings on Thursday was “positive”.

He wouldn’t elaborate on exactly what role the UN could play in the regional cooperation or what it would like to see from Pakistan.

He said priorities were building Afghan institutions, restructuring the economy as well as “bringing the region more closely together”.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai accuses Islamabad of secretly aiding insurgents with the goal of installing a pliable government in Kabul. Pakistani officials complain they are getting blamed for the failings of Karzai and his Western backers.

“We are of course concerned with regard to the insurgency and also the fact that this is a regional phenomenon” that also threatened Pakistan, Eide said.

Asked whether meddling from Afghanistan’s neighbours, who sided with different armed factions during its long wars, were still hampering a political settlement, Eide said he preferred not to look backwards.

“I look forward and I try to use the conclusions from the Paris document as a tool in order to bring Afghanistan forward,” he said. “The UN is ready to play a role in regional cooperation if the countries of the region wish it to do so.”—AP