(30 Jun 2003)
1. Various shots of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw disembarking from plane
2. Exterior wide shot the Afghan Foreign Ministry
3. Various shots of Straw meeting with Afghan Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah walking
4. Wide shot, Straw and Abdullah at press conference
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary:
"There are really difficult challenges lying ahead. The key one is security and we continue to work with you very actively to improve the security sector, to secure reform. As in any other country security must lie in the hands of the people of that country in the end. Other can do what we can, but it's both your responsibility and your duty."
6. Cutaway
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Afghan Foreign Minister:
"It is a process which has started. Two years ago 85 percent of this country was under al-Qaida - and the whole situation and the region could have been different, our whole world could have been different a different world. I think what happened as a result of September 11 and the reaction afterwards - it changed our destiny and it was a turning point in the history. We tend to forget that point. The process of stabilisation of Afghanistan has started but there are different elements."
8. Wide shot of Straw meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the Presidential Palace ++Quality as Incoming++
9. Mid shot of Straw meeting with Karzai, APTN prevented from completing shot by security
10. Straw arriving at the Army Training Centre
11. Mid shot of of Straw talking with soldier
12. Soldiers in line
13. Exterior of Army Training Centre
14. Various shots of Straw getting into vehicle and leaving
STORYLINE:
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Monday that Afghanistan has made great progress since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, but the country still has a long way to go to achieve security.
"There are really difficult challenges lying ahead. A key one is that of security and we continue to work with you
very actively to improve it," Straw said a press conference standing next to Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah.
Straw spoke shortly after arriving in Kabul on Monday on a two-day visit.
Straw said maintaining security was ultimately the responsibility of Afghanistan's government.
Afghanistan's transitional government has struggled to impose its authority outside the capital Kabul since the U.S.-led war ended 18 months ago.
Over 11,000 coalition troops are in the country hunting down Taliban remnants and their allies, and nearly 5,000 peacekeepers are deployed in the capital to boost security.
The fundamentalist Taliban, who ruled the capital and most of the country from 1996 to 2001, were overthrown in a U.S.-led war launched to punish the regime for harboring Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, blamed for the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.
Straw's trip is a follow-up to a visit Afghan President Hamid Karzai made to London in early June, said Fiona Morrison, a political officer at the British Embassy in Kabul.
Later on Monday Straw met Karzai at the Presidential Palace, and then visited the Army Training Centre where he met local troops.
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