Brown: Security handover to Afghans starts in '10

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Brown: Security handover to Afghans starts in '10


British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the transfer of security responsibilities from international forces to Afghan forces will begin in 2010.

Delegates and officials pose for a family photo at the beginning of the 'Afghanistan: The ?London Conference' in Lancaster House, central London, January 28

Brown said on Thursday that the London summit on Afghanistan marks the beginning of the transition process.

In their final communiqué, delegates from around 70 countries agreed that the Afghan forces could take control of security in some provinces by the end of 2010 and that the process could be completed within five years.

The world leaders also called on Taliban militants to renounce violence in exchange for money — but they offered no specific figures.

They also backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's plan to reintegrate Taliban militants who are willing to "cut ties with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups and pursue their political goals peacefully."

Karzai, seeking to win new international support after more than eight years of combat exhausted public support in the West, told the delegates that the regional countries, "particularly Pakistan and oil-rich Saudi Arabia," should support the peace and reconciliation process.

The recently re-elected Afghan president said that his country was moving "slowly but surely toward the end goals of peace and stability."

International allies have said that they will pledge at least USD 500 million for the reconciliation fund — officially known as the Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund, and commonly dubbed the "Taliban Trust Fund."