Abdullah attends Kabul summit

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was in Kabul yesterday for Afghanistan's biggest conference in more than three decades. The one-day International Donor's Conference for Afghanistan, opened by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, included Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, WAM, the state news agency, reported.

The meeting followed the Donor Conference in London in January, and was meant to convince the international community that Mr Karzai's government will be able to assume full leadership by 2014, more than three years after President Barack Obama's date for the start of an American troop withdrawal. Mr Karzai also demanded greater control of aid money. The Afghan government was due to present progress that has been achieved, as well as its outlook and plans for development.

Sheikh Abdullah was accompanied by Ali al Shamsi, the UAE's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Yousef Saif al Ali, the UAE's ambassador to Afghanistan. @Email:hkhalaf@thenational.ae @Email: