By Francois Murphy and Arshad Mohammed
PARIS (Reuters) - Donors led by the United States pledgedmore than $16 billion (8 billion pounds) in aid for Afghanistanon Thursday but said Kabul must do more to fight corruption andthe international assistance must be better coordinated.
At a conference in Paris, Washington promised $10.2 billionto help one of the world's poorest countries, which isgrappling with an insurgency, poverty, drug trafficking andcorruption 6-1/2 years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Talibanfrom power.
More than 12,000 people have been killed in Afghanistanduring the past two years and the Islamist Taliban movement hasvowed to step up a campaign of suicide bombings to try to breakthe will of Western nations that have forces in the nation.
"Afghanistan was taken hostage by a regime allied toterrorism, a regime that represents the very negation of thevalues of Islam," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at thestart of the conference of 68 nations, including Afghanistan.
"It is the duty of all democrats to help you," Sarkozy toldAfghan President Hamid Karzai at the start of the meeting,attended by representatives from more than 15 internationalorganisations, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Afghanistan asked the donors to help fund a $50 billionfive-year development plan and Karzai told the conference thathis country needed aid to be better coordinated as well as morehelp in institution-building to fight corruption.
"The current development process that is marred byconfusion and parallel structures undermines institutionbuilding," Karzai said. "While Afghanistan needs large amountsof aid, precisely how aid is spent is just as important."
While often politely expressed, minister after ministerpressed the Afghan authorities to do more against corruption.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said aid offeredby donors should be more effective and coherent, "ensuring thatit reaches Afghans and addresses their most urgent needs.
"This means successfully fighting corruption, improvingaccountability and it means Afghan ownership of development."
JOBS AND INCOME
Donors were not expected to pledge a full $50 billion butthe meeting was intended as a show of support for Afghanistanafter a NATO summit in April examined military strategy for themore than 50,000 NATO-led foreign troops stationed there.
The troops are trying to restore stability following thelate 2001 ouster of the Taliban after it refused to hand overOsama bin Laden, whose al Qaeda group carried out the September11 attacks on the United States.
In Afghanistan, scepticism about the donors' meetingreflected feelings that little aid has reached ordinary people.
"I haven't been paid for several months. I have children tofeed, salaries are very low there is no control on prices, nogood security, no water, no protection," said Karima Sediqi, ateacher on her way to work in the West of Kabul.
"Young Afghans join the insurgency and Taliban because theydon't have jobs and income."
It was unclear how much of the more than $16 billionpledged in loans and grants was fresh money. The U.S. pledgeconsists of sums already made public in budget requests to theU.S. Congress and $7.1 billion has yet to be approved bylawmakers.
Afghanistan depends on aid for 90 percent of its spending.But international donors have fallen behind in paying what theyhave already pledged, and much of the money goes straight backto donor countries in salaries, purchase of goods and profits.
