KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai took a step on Saturday towards reassuring wary Western allies by appointing a new cabinet that sheds two prominent politicians accused of corruption and retains pro-American leaders in key posts.

After weeks of consultation with Western diplomats, Karzai selected a new political team that seeks to mollify American officials who have pressed him to crack down on corruption and assuage Afghan warlords who backed him during the fraud-tainted presidential election.

Karzai opted to retain the ministers of finance, defense, and interior, all of whom will play central roles in building a credible Afghan security force capable of eventually replacing U.S. and other NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The Afghan president also sidelined the current minister of mines and minister of religious affairs, both of whom have been accused of political corruption. Read more on this article…

What do you think? Will Karzai End Corruption in Afghanistan? Click here to Vote now on this Poll…

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.