Powell to visit Afghanistan next week

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit Afghanistan next week to show support for the pro-Western interim government installed three weeks ago, the State Department said Friday.

The visit will be part of a trip that includes stops in India, Pakistan, Japan and possibly other countries that have not been disclosed.

Powell will be the first secretary of state to travel to Afghanistan since Henry Kissinger visited there in the mid-1970s.

During Powell's visit to Japan, he will attend an international conference on reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan set for Jan. 21-22. U.S. officials said the American contribution to the effort will be in the $400 million range.

A United Nations official said Friday that donor countries attending a meeting could be asked to contribute more than $2 billion.

That amount would cover the first 2 1/2 years of reconstruction. It includes $170 million to $200 million for land mine removal and up to $290 million for health care. The country has been devastated by war for 23 years.

The announcement of Powell's visit came four months after the Sept. 11 bombings.

State Department spokesman Richard, taking note of the date, said the United States has achieved a lot with its coalition partners in the campaign against terrorism.

"At the same time, there's much more to do to rid Afghanistan of foreign terrorists, to eliminate al-Qaida cells around the world and to wipe out the scourge of terrorism that threatens us all," he said.

A U.S.-led military campaign helped dislodge the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, helping to pave the way for the installation of a broad-based interim government on Dec. 22 and the reopening of the U.S. Embassy, which had been shuttered since 1989.

The last U.S. ambassador there, Adolph Dubs, was killed in 1979 in cross fire after he was taken hostage by Islamic radicals.

A main focus of Powell's trip will be to try to ease tensions between India and Pakistan.

Contention between the two appears to have accelerated lately but Boucher said he hopes a weekend speech by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf may contain positive elements.

"We have some idea about what he intends to do, and what he intends to say, but in the end it's for him to say, and for him to announce, for him to do what he decides," Boucher said.