BBC News with Deborah Mackenzie.
Foreign ministers from some 70 countries meeting in London have backed a new strategy they hope will
bring an end to
the conflict in Afghanistan. Under the plan, Afghan forces will increase to more than 300,000 by next year. A
timetable
for handing over security of certain areas to Afghan government forces is to begin later this year, with the process completed in the whole country within five years. 140 million dollars has been pledged to a fund to
reintegrate
Taliban fighters. Our diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus reports.
This meeting was all about charting a course for the crucial year ahead as NATO-led military operations move into high gear. Afghanistan's own security forces are to be expanded significantly. But much of the
emphasis
here was on reconciliation and recognition that there was no military solution to the country's problems.
A national council for peace, reconciliation and reintegration is to be established with foreign funding to assist in finding jobs for those fighters who lay down their arms.
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai also mentioned his desire for Saudi diplomatic involvement, a clear hint that he hopes to engage with more senior Taliban leaders as well.
A court in Paris has
acquit
ted the former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of plotting to discredit President Sarkozy five years ago when both men were hoping to