UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6: The UN Security Council announced on Monday it would send a diplomatic mission to Afghanistan at the end of the month for a first-hand look at efforts to rebuild the country.

Germany’s UN ambassador Gunter Pleuger will lead the mission from Oct 31 to Nov 8, which is aimed at stressing the international community’s “unwavering commitment” to the peace and reconstruction process.

The council said it would also visit Islamabad at the invitation of the government.

The first such mission since the ouster of the Taliban two years ago comes as the Afghan government has been complaining of increasing cross-border incursions from the Al Qaeda and Taliban elements coming from Pakistan.

US troops clashed with 15 militants in southeastern Afghanistan at the weekend, killing one attacker before the rest fled towards Pakistan, the US alleged on Monday.

Ten of the 15 council nations are sending their UN ambassadors on the mission, including US ambassador John Negroponte, Britain’s Emyr Jones Parry, Sergey Lavrov of Russia and Pakistan’s UN envoy Munir Akram.

The council said the mission was meant to “convey a strong message to regional and factional leaders about the need to reject all violence”.

The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai says it needs Pakistan to do more to crack down on militants. It also wants more international aid and has said next year’s elections could be delayed.

Under the Bonn agreements drawn up after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, a new constitution has to be approved by a loya jirga, or grand assembly, before elections can be held. —AFP