Afghanistan FM pledges clean, honest cabinet

KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan's new government will be clean and honest, the foreign minister pledged Tuesday, after international calls mounted for Kabul to eradicate widespread graft in the country.

"We will have a very clean and honest cabinet," Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told reporters after talks with his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt. Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

President Hamid Karzai's cabinet "will have new faces, active faces, credible faces," said Spanta, considered close to the head of state.

Massive fraud uncovered after the August 20 presidential election highlighted the scale of corruption in Afghanistan's government and has led to enormous international pressure on Karzai to clean up graft.

Election officials declared him the winner this month when his challenger abandoned a run-off.

More than 100,000 NATO and US-led troops are helping the government battle a Taliban insurgency at its deadliest since US-led troops toppled the Islamist regime eight years ago.

With the stakes mounting for the alliance, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear Monday that Washington would seek specific action, not just promises, to end corruption in Afghanistan.

"The government of Afghanistan accepts corruption is a very significant problem," Spanta said, adding that he and Bildt discussed the issue.

The Swedish diplomat called for "a new start for Afghanistan" after the controversial election, which marked only the second time that Afghans have been given an opportunity to elect a president.

In an interview with US television, Karzai has said "individuals who are involved in corruption will have no place in the government."

US President Barack Obama is weighing whether to send tens of thousands of more soldiers to Afghanistan, but Bildt said EU troop numbers would stay roughly the same.

"But we will substantially increase the size of our civilian and economic aid. We are here on a long-term commitment," he said.

EU nations contribute one billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) annually to Afghanistan and have 35,000 soldiers, including 500 Swedes, in the country, he said.