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Afghan National Army commandos train at Camp Morehead on the outskirts of Kabul, March, 22, 2011.Dar Yasin

Afghans will assume lead responsibility for security in a handful of showcase provinces and cities beginning this summer, a tentative and still experimental step toward weaning the country from its dependence on foreign troops.

President Hamid Karzai announced Tuesday that the first official handover from NATO to Afghan forces will start in July in a process that aims "to put an end to the practice of decisions taken for us by others."

The date coincides with the planned withdrawal of Canadian combat forces from Afghanistan and the anticipated drawdown of some of the 100,000-strong U.S. forces.

NATO leaders are just as eager to see the end of the Afghanistan engagement, which is now grinding into its 10th year and has become the alliance's longest and costliest combat mission.

Their target date for completing the transition is the end of 2014, when they hope the Afghan government will be capable not only of defending its territory, but establishing its credibility with its own people.

The first goal hinges on the success of NATO efforts to maintain its momentum in building up the Afghan army and police forces, which have grown by 43 per cent in the past year and a half.

The second, the establishment of local government across the country that can deliver services such as schools and courts, faces significant challenges from rampant corruption and the persistent threat of insurgent violence across much of the country.

The three provinces slated for handover in the first stage are considered relatively free of the Taliban, which has its roots in the southeast and other largely Pashtun areas.

Sparsely populated Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan, dominated by the Shia Hazara minority, has seen little fighting in the past years. Nor has Tajik-dominated Panjshir province, a historic anti-Taliban stronghold and another of those to be formally transferred in the first stage.

Afghan forces will also take the lead in Kabul province, which includes the capital with its heavily guarded embassies and the headquarters and major training facilities of the NATO forces. Excluded in the first handover will be the still unstable Surobi district of the province, where French troops are based.

Mr. Karzai said Afghan forces will also take the lead in securing four provincial capitals: Mazar-i-Sharif in the northern province of Balkh; Herat in the west near the Iranian border; and Mehterlam in the eastern province of Lagham.

The fourth, Lashkar Gah in Helmand province in the southeast, was only recently wrested from Taliban control after a concentrated effort by U.S. and British forces.

Mr. Karzai's announcement made lavish use of symbols meant to demonstrate that Afghanistan is embarking on a new beginning. He chose the day after the holiday of Nawruz, a celebration of spring and the start of the Afghan new year.

His audience included not only diplomats and cabinet members, but also a sea of uniformed young Afghan army recruits who were gathered in a hangar-like building near the Kabul airport for the graduation of 299 newly minted lieutenants from the National Military Academy.

NATO leaders, weary of the extended involvement in Afghanistan, agreed to Mr. Karzai's request for a timetable for transition during a summit in Lisbon in November.

But they have consistently cautioned that some foreign troops, most likely with U.S. and British soldiers in the lead, should remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014 to ensure that it does not become a haven for terrorist groups as it was during the Taliban regime.





Mr. Karzai made his oft-repeated call for international donors and NATO commanders to give their development aid money directly to his government. Most remain reluctant to do so in a country rife with corruption, a poorly regulated banking system and an administration prone to nepotism.

Still, the Afghan government has become increasingly assertive in the past few months. The Finance Ministry has been sending out threatening letters to foreign companies ordering them to collect payroll taxes for Afghan employees and pay taxes on their earnings.

But tax collection, the lifeline of any state, is a work in progress. Contractors say the ministry constantly loses their paperwork or double-bills them.

Public confidence in the Afghan security forces has also steadily increased in the last two years, according to studies by the United Nations and other groups. But the police, in particular, are described by many of those surveyed as corrupt and their command structure as incapable of controlling the corruption.

Mr. Karzai acknowledged, if only obliquely, that his government has yet to win the trust of Afghans. He criticized foreign troops, as he has in the past, for killing and injuring civilians during anti-insurgent operations. But he also said government employees have preyed on ordinary people.

"We hope the day comes," he said, "when the people of Afghanistan see the government departments and its employees, the courts and the attorney-general's office, as serving them and not intimidating them."

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