BRITAIN TO BOOST AID TO AFGHANISTAN

Move Comes Amid Worries About Poppy Production And Need for More
Troops

LONDON -- Britain said it will more than double its aid to Afghanistan
amid growing international concern that the war-torn country needs
more money and troops quickly if it is to keep reconstruction on track
and counter renewed poppy production.

The increase, to UKP 500 million ($934 million or €750 million) from
UKP 200 million over five years, comes as many farmers in Afghanistan
once again are turning to opium poppy production and are expected this
year to reap a bumper crop. That threatens to entrench regional
warlords and fund insurgency by militants from the former Taliban
regime. The Central Intelligence Agency says Afghan poppies provide
the raw materials for as much as 90% of Europe's heroin supply and
about a third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.

Security concerns also threaten to delay crucial Afghan elections,
scheduled for June, although President Hamid Karzai has said he still
aims to hold the elections on time. Only about 1.8 million of 10.5
million eligible Afghans have registered to vote, in part because it
is too dangerous for registration volunteers to go out in southern
regions.

Part of the increase in British aid will be targeted at eradicating
poppy production, providing programs for farmers to grow other crops
and conflict prevention. The announcement also was designed to
encourage other nations to provide money before a donors' conference
at the end of March in Berlin, which is expected to raise money for
Afghanistan. "We are demonstrating a level of increased commitment,
and clearly we'd like to encourage others to see what they can do,"
said Hilary Benn, the United Kingdom's secretary of state for
international development.

A U.S. official said the U.S. was likely to increase its aid offer at
the Berlin conference, but declined to say by how much. French and
German officials declined to comment. Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf
Ghani Ahmadzai welcomed Britain's move in a telephone interview from
Kabul, saying "both the amount of the increase and the [2002-2007]
period of the pledge are very important to us."

The expected increase in aid, though, is likely to fall short of what
Afghanistan's fledgling government claims to need. The international
community promised to give Afghanistan $4.5 billion (€3.6 billion)
for reconstruction efforts over five years at a January 2002 donor
conference in Tokyo. Since then, further pledges have raised the total
to $5.2 billion. Still, the Afghan government plans to submit an
investment plan at the Berlin conference that will require $28.5
billion in aid over seven years -- a number European officials call
unrealistic.

The Berlin conference is part of a two-step effort in the next few
months to refocus attention on Afghanistan even as the reconstruction
of Iraq dominates the international aid agenda. The second step comes
in June at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Istanbul,
Turkey. NATO has about 6,000 peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan,
nearly all of them in Kabul.

The 19-member military alliance has agreed in principle to extend its
coverage beyond the capital, using so-called provincial reconstruction
teams of 200 to 300 personnel each, plus support troops. Contributor
nations are expected to decide in Istanbul by how much to expand and
to offer the troops needed -- though again hopes aren't high that
Afghanistan will get what it needs. "We aren't very optimistic, just
out of realism," said a French government official. The official said
many of the allies that supply troops in Kabul are overstretched,
citing French commitments in Ivory Coast and Haiti.

Bathsheba Crocker, co-director of the post-conflict resolution project
at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington,
says she is concerned that the poppy money landing in the pockets of
regional warlords -- including Taliban militants -- could fund a
downward spiral of armed violence. "So far, the international
community's commitment to Afghanistan has been woefully inadequate,
both on the money and the troops side," she said.

According to an October 2002 report by U.K. charity Care
International, Afghanistan was promised $75 per capita in
international aid for 2002, far below annual amounts given to four
other recent post-conflict states. Rwanda received $193 per capita per
year, Bosnia $326, Kosovo $288 and East Timor $195, according to Care.
All of those pale in comparison to the $32 billion in grants and loans
pledged to Iraq.