Afghanistan will need the 10,000 Nato troops to ensure security for its presidential and general elections in September, the country's reconstruction minister Mohammed Amin Farhang said on Saturday on German radio.
"We need a security force of 10,000 men until the elections are over because some parts of the territory are still very instable. I hope that officials in the international community will understand," he said on DeutschlandRadio, after welcoming Nato's decision at its Istanbul summit to send in reinforcements.
The minister also said his country would need 50 million dollars in international aid to hold the elections, but this sum had not yet been reached.
"There could be big technical problems" if the money is not forthcoming, he said. But he added that the government did not intend to put back the elections because of the security problems.
"The situation with regard to security is variable. It is very quiet in some regions and there are other problems in others. But that will not stop us following the plan decided in 2001 at the conference in Saint Petersburg," he said.
Recent attacks by Taleban and al Qaeda had had the effect of speeding up the process of voter registration, he explained. More than five million Afghans have already registered on electoral lists, "which is a good sign, positive," he said.
Nato announced on June 29 that it was sending another 1,500 troops to Afghanistan, in addition to the 6,500 already there in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which Nato took charge of in August 2003.
Another contingent of 2,000 soldiers will be on emergency stand-by if needed.
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