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and very warm compliments about me. Thank you very much, Ladies and Gentlemen of the media. It is a great honour for me to visit for the second time as Secretary-General of the United Nations. It is also very appropriate for me to visit at the early stage of this year 2009.

This year is going to be a very important and crucial year for the Afghanistan people and Government in many aspects; in addressing the security challenges and also establishing full democracy, and development and prosperity of the Afghanistan people.

Mr. President, as you have just said, I am a great friend of Afghanistan. It is not only because I am the Secretary-General of the United Nations - my relationship with the people of Afghanistan and the Government began more than three decades ago, since 1972, when I was working in the neighbouring country, India, as a young diplomat. I used to come to Kabul many times to discuss the bilateral relationship - at that time in my capacity as a diplomat for the Republic of Korea and Afghanistan. Now, I am much more determined to see Afghanistan enjoy full democracy, full security and full development.

Under the leadership of President Karzai, it has been a great pleasure for me to work together with President Karzai and other senior Government officials. It is clear that Afghanistan will continue to face many challenges in 2009, but I think we can confront them.

For that to be possible, the United Nations and the Afghanistan Government should maintain a strong partnership: in the area of addressing security challenges, in the area of addressing development and prosperity and human rights and fuller democracy. These are important commitments and important agendas which we have to work on.

We have my Special Representative, Mr. Kai Eide, who has been working tirelessly with Afghanistan Government leaders, including President Karzai. And I am here travelling with the highest senior advisors of the United Nations.

I am here to demonstrate and convey my strong commitment and support for peace and stability and development of the Afghanistan people.

For the United Nations, Afghanistan remains a key priority in 2009. The United

Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will have strong support and strong engagement with increased support from the United Nations General

Assembly and general membership.

Our strategy is simple: to implement the plan agreed to by the Afghan Government and 88 donors in Paris in June last year. This plan is clear and what we need is to get on with it to bring tangible changes on the ground while continuing to assess the situation.

The plan we have focuses on investment in key sectors: agriculture, energy,

Infrastructure, and on making aid more effective. Where there is stability we must invest in development; where stability is tenuous we must focus on restoring the confidence of Afghanistan.

In the processes we had underwritten –we must bring tangible changes in the lives of Afghanistan. This requires coordination of international efforts –UNAMA's mandate is to support this coordination. My Special Representative is working with donors, Afghanistan's institutions and the private sector to ensure their efforts are in line behind the Paris strategy.

The Paris agenda is of course a 'shared responsibility' between the Afghan

Government and the international community to make sure that we make further

progress and we have to make further progress quickly. Coordination is also a

shared responsibility of each and every donor and not exclusively for who those who lead the coordination.

Elections will be held in 2009. Now we have a date. It will be challenging, but we will do our utmost to ensure that the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission, with technical assistance from the United Nations is adequately supported by donors. The voter registration process has proceeded smoothly. We must ensure that the electoral process proceeds as smoothly as possible.

The international military presence remains important. We also need to balance

political and military means to establish stability in Afghanistan. Including through an Afghan-led political solution based on the constitution. Regional cooperation is so crucial to Afghanistan but also to its neighbours. And it has a lot of potential. UNAMA will continue to cooperate within the region on political, economic and security matters, fostering support on practical areas of common interest.

Again I assure you of the full support and cooperation and commitment of the United Nations and I hope that my visit - though brief - will give us a good opportunity for an exchange of views, and how we can foster this partnership between Afghanistan and the United Nations and the international community as a whole. Thank you very much for your attention.

Q: Translated from Pashto - Nowadays there is a lot of criticism coming towards President Karzai's Government. Recently one of his important allies, the USA Defence Ministry or Pentagon said that his Government is weak. Do you think President Karzai's Government is a weak or a strong Government? And are you supporting a weak Government or a strong one?

SG: I have been enjoying working together with President Karzai since I became the Secretary-General of the United Nations. For the United Nations and for me as the Secretary-General, Afghanistan has always been at the top of our priorities. The other leaders of the international community have also been working very closely together with President Karzai on the basis of mutual respect, and admiration and understanding. I have been attending many international conferences to support Afghanistan. The very generous and strong support expressed by the world leaders on many occasions where I have attended, together with President Karzai, demonstrate and reflect how strong confidence and strong trust he has received and he will receive until now.

This has made the Afghanistan people and Government to address all the challenges you are facing these days. On security, you have the full support from the international community, ISAF, and NATO, and there are many other countries that have been contributing troops again.

You have the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and the Paris agenda which have been supported by all the international community and again it was led by the United Nations.

I sincerely hope that on the basis of such strong support and confidence and trust President Karzai has been enjoying, your people and your Government will be able to address and put your country to a fuller democracy and much more prosperous and much more secure a country as soon as possible.

Â鶹´«Ã½ will continue to work together with President Karzai and his Government. Thank you.

Q: Translation from Dari - I want to see your reaction to the remarks of Mike Mullen, where he calls the Afghan Government a weak one in his recent report.

President Karzai answers, touching on the subject of civilian casualties.

SG: Mr. President, if you will allow me, on this issue of civilian casualties, I would like to add some more to what President Karzai just answered. Basically, I fully share the concerns and frustrations that President Karzai has endured because of many tragic incidents where civilian people have been killed in the course of military operations in fighting against terrorism.

As the Secretary-General of United Nations, in fact, this issue of civilian casualities has been a source of deep concern and I have expressed on many occasions a strong concern that while conducting military operations they must ensure not to have civilian casualties occur. I have discussed this matter with President Karzai, I have discussed the matter with the Secretary-General of NATO, and I sincerely hope again and urge the military authorities to ensure that this will not happen again and for that there should be very close military civilian coordination. My Special Representative, Mr. Kai Eide, has been closely coordinating with the Commander of ISAF. This is what I really wanted to strongly urge again.

Q: (translated from Dari) First of all, I would like to welcome the United Nations Secretary-General to Afghanistan. In your remarks you referred to the Paris Conference and the pledges of donor countries to Afghanistan. But as reports indicate these pledges are still on paper and the initial steps for these pledges have not been fulfilled, if I am not mistaken, these pledges have to be acted upon fully by 2012.

SG: The Paris agenda has provided a very important framework of commitment, both by the international community and President Karzai and his Government. As I said, this is a shared responsibility, this is not only one sided by the international community. Of course the purpose of this Paris Agenda was to help the Afghanistan Government and its people address all these challenges. There are some gaps of pledges and delivery. I will ensure to discuss with the major donors to implement their commitment. At the same time President Karzai and his Government made a strong commitment at the time of this Paris Conference to enhance good governance, to make this government transparent and accountable. This is a very important commitment - to fight against corruption and to make this government as accountable as possible. There is an aid effectiveness issue. You can expect very generous contribution of the donors at the same time there should be effectiveness and efficiency and transparency and accountability on the part of the Afghanistan Government and also government officials in implementing this Paris agenda. So I would stress again this is a shared responsibility, but as your Government increases, enhances, good governance I am sure the international community will address this issue much more favourably and generously. Thank you very much.