"We, the people of Afghanistan, know and must know that securing Afghanistan's territory is our work, the work of Afghans.

"Securing the independence of this land, its integrity, its honour is the work of Afghanistan," President Hamid Karzai said in his opening address to the two-day conference.

The interior, foreign and defence ministers -- along with some 50 Afghan generals, Herat governor Ismail Khan, northern warlord Atta Mohammad and the International Security Assistance Force commander German Lieutenant General Norbert van Heyst -- attended the conference entitled "Shaping the future of Afghanistan - the military dimension."

Afghanistan's new army aims by next summer to have a "central core" of 9,000 to 12,000, a fraction of the goal of 70,000, said US Lieutenant General Dan McNeill, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan.

McNeill said it had been "a tough road" building the army due to ingrained ethnic and regional differences and suspicions.

"I'm happy to say that many of those suspicions, not all, but many of those suspicions have been put aside for the benefit of this country," he said.

Recruits were now arriving in the right numbers and "representing each ethnic group and each region."

The conference would determine "what the modern army should look like in its final state and what it should do for this country and the people of this country," McNeill said.

"I am determined that the Afghans can indeed help themselves and will help themselves if they simply have a little help from us and the international community," he said.

Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim said Afghanistan's national army "is the guarantor of the country's welfare and national unity, the guarantor of national interests and finally the guarantor of a united Afghanistan."

Disarming militias and extending the control of the Afghan government beyond Kabul to the provinces, which remain largely under the control of local warlords, is one of the priorities of President Karzai.

Tajik warlord Mohammad and Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostam, who is a deputy defence minister, have been vying for control of northern Afghanistan. Clashes between their rival militias in the northern city of Maimana recently! left 18 people dead.

SPACE.WIRE