Karzai to create national Afghan army

AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai has hailed the progress his country has made since forming a government a year ago, but new fighting yesterday underlined the impoverished country's fragile situation.

Amid concern about lack of central government control, Mr Karzai said he had signed a decree to create a national army to replace the country's many private militias.

He was in the former German capital Bonn with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and international officials to mark a December 2001 agreement on a post-Taliban government.