Hillarysworld

(AFP) – 6 hours ago

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday unveiled a long-term, non-military strategy to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan that calls for sending more civilian experts to the region.

More than a month after the Obama administration announced a military surge for Afghanistan, the new civilian strategy outlines plans to rebuild the Afghan farm sector, improve governance, and reintegrate extremists into society.

It also calls for boosting Pakistan's capabilities to fight a growing Islamist insurgency and to enhance the US partnership with Islamabad partly through supporting political and economic reforms.

A key part of the plan also calls for "countering extremist voices" in both countries, where anti-American feelings run high.

"While our military mission in Afghanistan is not open-ended, we are committed to building lasting partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan," Clinton said in a statement timed with the release of the strategy.

"I believe this strategy offers the best prospect for stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan," the chief US diplomat said.

"I look forward to working with Congress to secure the non-military resources needed to achieve our mission and to signal our commitment to Afghanistan and Pakistan," she said, adding the money would be well spent.

However, it was not immediately clear how much support there is in Congress for the strategy.

In terms of concrete civilian deployments, Clinton called for increases of experts in Afghanistan beyond the nearly 1,000 US civilian experts due to be deployed by now or in the next few weeks.

"We anticipate further increasing our civilian staffing in 2010 by another 20 to 30 percent, concentrating experts in the field and at key ministries that deliver vital services to the Afghan people," the report said.

The Afghanistan and Pakistan Regional Stabilization Strategy was produced by the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, who briefed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on it.