Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have called for an international conference on the future of Afghanistan to be held before the end of this year.

The conference is intended to bring together the newly-elected Afghan Government with Nato, the United Nations and other key players in the multinational mission in the country to map out a detailed strategy for 2010.

Speaking alongside Mrs Merkel at a press conference in Berlin, Mr Brown said the conference should focus on security, governance and development in Afghanistan as well as securing the necessary funding and giving homegrown police, security forces and civic institutions a greater role in delivering them
The gathering is expected to be hosted by the UN and London and Kabul have been mooted as possible venues.

But preparations may be delayed by continued uncertainty over the results of the elections in Afghanistan, where electoral officials said that they had thrown out results from almost 450 polling stations because of allegations of fraud.

President Hamid Karzai was reported to be edging closer to the 50% threshold needed to secure a fresh mandate without facing a second-round run-off, but supporters of his main rival Abdullah Abdullah claim that his tally has been inflated by ballot boxes stuffed with tens of thousands of votes.

Mr Brown said: "The high-level conference that we that we propose in Afghanistan is one that should meet before the end of the year. It should deal with the issues of security, governance and development...

"We both support a conference which would bring together the next Afghan government, the UN, Nato and the key contributing countries to look ahead at the next phase of our mission in three areas - security, development and governance - and see how the Afghan people, its army, police force and civic institutions can play a bigger role in the future, and to ensure that our strategy is properly supported by the resources that are needed to deliver it."

Mr Brown and Mrs Merkel also discussed the preparations for the summit of leaders of the G20 group of major economies due to take place in Pittsburgh later this month.

G20 finance ministers meeting in London yesterday to pave the way for Pittsburgh agreed that anti-recessionary fiscal stimulus packages should remain in place until recovery is assured.

Following today's talks, Mr Brown said: "The message of the last 12 months, from Germany and the UK and the rest of the world is that the world can and did come together to prevent economic collapse and to prevent what could have been a second Great Depression.

"We now need to come together again with heightened co-operation to ensure that the recovery - which is fragile and not automatic - is not put at risk.

"We need heightened co-operation also to meet the long-term challenge of durable growth and employment."

• 

  Lenny Henry: 'Maybe one day we can have a black Doctor Who'

  As he wins the outstanding newcomer prize at the Evening Standard theatre awards for his role as Othello, Lenny Henry has come a long way from black and white minstrels

  ---

• 

  Spread of the Jedhead

  Jedward, voted off the X-Factor this weekend, are the most obvious proponents of the sticky-uppy look - but the style crosses boundaries of age, gender, sexuality and taste, says Nick Curtis

  ---

Sky in plot to hire students on the cheap

Sky News is currently recruiting students as reporters for its coverage of next year's general election. However, the opportunity doesn't quite seem so appealing

All stories