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KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was sworn in for a new term in office three weeks ago, has postponed the unveiling of his long-awaited cabinet, a parliament spokesman said on Tuesday.
Re-elected following a controversial August election marred by massive fraud, the head of state is under huge domestic and foreign pressure to form a transparent government to help end an eight-year Taliban insurgency.
His spokesman Siamak Herawai had said Karzai intended to introduce a number of his new cabinet members to parliament on Tuesday, but a spokesman for the lower house said the move had been delayed until Saturday at the earliest.
"They notified the parliament yesterday about the delay. It will not happen until next week," spokesman Haseeb Noori told AFP. The working week in Muslim Afghanistan begins on Saturday.
Parliament must pass a vote of confidence before the new Afghan cabinet can start work and analysts hope that the new line-up can finally crack on with the business of government after months of political paralysis.
The delay comes after some MPs opposed presentation of the cabinet in groups, preferring the entire line-up to be finalised first.
Washington has warned Karzai to fight corruption or see his cabinet bypassed in favour of lower level officials to provide services to Afghans as part of a sweeping new war strategy that includes more than 30,000 extra troops.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who flew into Kabul on Tuesday for talks about Washington's new strategy to send 30,000 extra troops into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, stepped up calls for an efficient government.
Speaking to reporters travelling with him, Gates emphasised "the importance for us of capable, honest ministers in areas that are critical for our success, such as defence and interior".
He said both the current Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Hanif Atmar "are very capable people".
In a possible sign of a future campaign against graft, an Afghan court on Monday sentenced the mayor of Kabul to four years in prison on corruption charges in the first high-profile corruption conviction since the election.
But Karzai faces a challenge in satisfying those who supported him in the elections with government jobs and keeping his Western allies happy.
Spiralling insecurity, the drugs trade, corruption, crime and alliances with warlords accused of rights abuses have triggered mounting criticism of his administration, dismaying Western capitals and the Afghan public.
Karzai has already inaugurated Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a former anti-Soviet resistance leader implicated in abuses, including murder, weapons smuggling and narcotics activities, as his first vice president.
In an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday, Karzai reiterated his inauguration pledge to root out official corruption, but insisted that complaints from Western powers about government graft were "overplayed".
- AFP/so
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