KABUL, Jan 25: Afghanistan’s interim leader met United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday and said there was a wide desire among Afghans for a broadened multinational military presence to help bring stability across the country.

“A lot of Afghans who came to see us in the past month asked us for the presence of the international security force in other parts of Afghanistan,” Hamid Karzai said at a news conference with Annan.

Currently about 2,200 international soldiers are taking part in a British-led security force in Kabul, which is eventually to grow to 5,000.

However, the mission is limited to the Afghan capital and security concerns in the rest of the country _ where warlords reign in the provinces _ have raised calls for an expanded force.

Annan did not directly reply when asked if the United Nations would consider an expanded mission, but said he and Karzai had discussed “urgent formation of an Afghan police force and an Afghan army”.

Annan arrived in the morning and left for Iran in the evening. During the short visit to Kabul, the first to Afghanistan by a UN head since Dag Hammarskjold in 1959, Annan visited a school for girls, newly reopened after the fall of the Taliban.

“I’ve been very encouraged by what I saw ... to see their enthusiasm and joy,” he said. Annan also met commanders of the international peacekeeping force.

A UN deputy special envoy, Francesc Vendrell, said on Thursday that government officials and ordinary Afghans want the force increased and given a mandate to operate in the provinces, where regional warlords hold sway.

Annan did not state the specific issues he would discuss with government leaders in Iran, but said “we have been stressing to the governments (of neighbouring countries) that they should not interfere in Afghanistan”.

The United States has warned Iran to stay out of Afghan politics, citing reports that Tehran is sending pro-Iranian Afghan fighters and money into the country to back allied factions, especially Shias.—APP