Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal has made an abortive attempt to visit the Dutch police trainers and military personnel in the Afghan province of Kunduz, says Radio Netherlands Worldwide correspondent Bette Dam.

The minister’s spokesperson said the visit was initially scrapped for security reasons. Later the plane taking Mr Rosenthal to the northern province broke down after it had been cleared to fly after all. The minister has announced he will visit the troops in Kunduz at “some other time.”

On Sunday, he met Afghan president Hamid Karzai, the interior and foreign ministers and US General David Petraeus, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

According to Mr Rosenthal, the Afghan government has assured him it will meet all conditions parliament has attached to the training mission. The minister said that the Afghan government was "unexpectedly positive". General Petraeus called the Dutch mission to Kunduz an important contribution to ISAF's operations.

Watch a video about the Dutch police training mission to Afghanistan’s Kunduz province

(gsh/imm)

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