The United States will pledge an additional $1 billion in reconstruction aid for Afghanistan at a donors conference in Berlin later this month, U.S.Secretary of State Colin Powell has confirmed.
"The United States will make another significant contribution at that conference -- another billion dollars on top of the $1.2 billion we have already committed," Mr Powell told a group of Afghan women in Kabul.
"So this year it will be $2.2 billion."
Afghanistan is seeking $25 billion in reconstruction aid over the next seven years and another $3.5 billion in budget support over the same period at the Berlin conference.
Powell arrived in Kabul earlier on Wednesday, the latest stop on a tour of South Asia.
