Afghanistan's interim leader set to attend UN Security Council on Wednesday

The head of the Afghan Interim Administration, Hamid Karzai, is expected to visit United Nations headquarters on Wednesday to attend a formal meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan, a UN spokesman said today.

Mr. Karzai is scheduled to arrive at around 9:15 a.m. and stay only for about 45 minutes because of his very tight schedule in New York, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, was back in Kabul today after accompanying the UN leader on his visit to the region.

On Saturday, Mr. Brahimi attended the Secretary-General's meeting with Foreign Minister of Iran, Kamal Kharrazi, who praised the UN envoy's work on Afghanistan as a "magnificent achievement."

In another development, UN officials said today that the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Catherine Bertini, was expected to arrive in Kabul on Tuesday as part of her five-day trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan.