UN Chief in surprise Afghanistan visit

AFGHANISTAN: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday for talks with President Hamid Karzai and leaders on efforts to help the embattled country, officials said.

Ban's trip comes amid renewed international focus on Afghanistan, which is preparing for elections in August while facing an insurgency at its highest point since the US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said Ban's visit was intended to "underscore the priority the UN is placing on its work in Afghanistan."

Ban would meet Karzai, Afghan lawmakers and a range of international officials, including commanders of the NATO-led force of 55,000 troops and representatives of UN agencies, it said.

Ban, who was last in Afghanistan in 2007, arrived amid concern about deteriorating security, which the United Nations said reached its lowest point last year since the Taliban was removed from government.

"The situation in Afghanistan is serious and it's getting worse," the UN's top relief official, John Holmes, said in Geneva on Tuesday.

The reasons were "escalating conflict and also because of the serious drought which has been raging there for two years in some parts of the country," he said. The United Nations has appealed for more than 600 million dollars in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan this year.

Kabul, Wednesday, AFP