The increased European involvement in Afghanistan was underlined in January as both the EU and NATO considered their presence and the EU Foreign Policy representative Javier Solana visited the leadership in Kabul as part of an extended Middle East tour that also included Palestine and Iran.

The EU is the second-largest donor to Afghanistan after the US, providing some €250 million in 2003. This amount does not include the military expenditure of the European countries which have troops here, including France, Germany and Italy. Solana praised Afghanistan on its January 4 adoption of a new constitution and said he had a "very good exchange of views" with President Hamid Karzai during a lunch at which they discussed the forthcoming Afghan elections.

Javier Solana

The elections have been a source of some international concern because of the slow registration of voters -- with just over 3% of the 10 million people eligible registered at the last count. Escalating violence in the south and southeast of the country are also seen as deterring people from voting. Solana said he favoured presidential and parliamentary elections at the same time and added he was confident they could go ahead as scheduled for the summer.

The Solana visit came just a few weeks following a similar voyage by the former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and six months before the planned elections in the still-unstable country. This contact by Solana also comes in the midst of consultations between NATO, member countries contributing military forces to the country and other international institutions on the establishment of additional Provincial Reconstruction Teams throughout the country. NATO recently assumed command of the International Stabilisation Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.