Afghan President Hamid Karzai is considering re-introducing conscription to increase the speed of the armed forces build-up.

He says the army needs to be 300,000-strong in 2012 and three years later must be able to do without foreign help. By that time, he believes, Afghanistan will only need international support to combat terrorism.
 

The president believes local Afghan leaders back conscription because the army can provide men from the countryside with a good education. Conscription was abolished in Afghanistan in 1992. 

photo: Hamid Karzai (ANP)