UK offers to host meeting on Afghan security handover

Published on Monday 16 November 2009 21:28

BRITAIN has offered to host an international conference in January to set a timetable for transferring security responsibilities to Afghan forces from next year, Gordon Brown said yesterday.

The bloodiest year for British troops has fuelled public opposition to the campaign, creating another headache for the Prime Minister as he tries to close a big gap on the Conservatives ahead of an election due by June.

Mr Brown said that he had offered London as a venue for an international meeting on Afghanistan in January.

"I want that conference to chart a comprehensive political framework within which the military strategy can be accomplished," he said last night.

"It should identify a process for transferring district by district to full Afghan control and if at all possible set a timetable for transfer starting in 2010."

Mr Brown, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy jointly proposed a conference on Afghanistan in September.

Britain has the second largest foreign military contingent in Afghanistan after the US.