KABUL (voa) – German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has begun a one-day visit to Kabul for talks on international efforts to help rebuild war-torn Afghanistan. Mr. Schroeder was greeted at Kabul airport by Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai. Following talks with Mr. Karzai, he is expected to meet former Afghan King Zahir Shah.
Germany hosted a U.N. sponsored conference, during which Afghanistan’s rival factions agreed to form a multi-ethnic transitional government.
The German Chancellor will also visit with some of the more than 1,000 German peacekeepers in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force.
Mr. Schroeder’s plans also include a tour a police training facility supported in part by the German government, and a visit to one of the new girls’ schools set up in Kabul since the collapse of the radical Islamic Taleban regime late last year.
The Taleban government, which fell to Afghan opponents and the U.S.-led anti-terrorist coalition last year, forbade dispensing education to girls and women.
Following his visit to Afghanitsan, Mr. Schroeder will travel to neighboring Uzbekistan.
