More than 80 donor countries and international organizations are meeting in Paris to come up with funds for reconstruction and development in Afghanistan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the day in the company of his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon. He announced that French financial aid for Afghanistan would be “more than doubled.”  He gave no figure, but the Elysée said it would total 107 million euros over the next two years.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Hamid Karzai said security was “the greatest challenge” facing Afghanistan as the country is still wrecked by a Taliban insurgency. He also added that “regional cooperation is needed to fight international terrorism.”

The Afghan president briefly presented his 50-billion-dollar development plan and insisted on the need to develop infrastructure and work with farmers to discourage them from growing opium.  

The international community is set to seal a “new deal” to encourage the development of a country ruined by corruption and violence since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. According to the conference organisers, parties must now reflect on how to best deliver aid. On the eve of the conference, the UN Special Representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, told FRANCE 24 in an exclusive interview, that "too much of the donor money falls back into the hands of the donor country itself and never reaches the Afghans."

“Donors will ask Karzai to better distribute aid and step up the fight against corruption,” says FRANCE 24’s Christophe Robeet reporting from the conference in Paris.

The US has already announced it would contribute 10 billion dollars for 2008-2009. However, reports Robeet, the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) puts this promise into perspective. “While the US spends 100 million dollars everyday to sustain the military effort, only 7 million dollars per day go to humanitarian projects,” he says.