AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 15 - Wolfowitz Unveils Plan To Aid Security.

Visiting Kabul, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz meets Pres. Karzai at the presidential palace and calls for accelerating the reconstruction of the country, outlining a new plan for using US, local and possibly European forces to improve security in more than half a dozen cities racked by banditry and factional fighting. Wolfowitz says outside the Rabia Balki Women's Hospital, which is being rebuilt with US money: "We're clearly moving into a different phase, where our priority in Afghanistan is increasingly going to be stability and reconstruction". Wolfowitz also meets with Defence Minister Marshal Mohammad Fahim to discuss accelerating the training of the National Army. US officials hope the force, which has about 1,800 freshly minted soldiers, will have more than 9,000 troops by early 2004, in time for national elections. Wolfowitz said he urged Fahim, who was a top military leader of the Northern Alliance forces that ousted the Taliban and who continues to maintain a large garrison of loyal troops in Kabul, to begin disbanding his militia and distributing their weapons to the National Army. Wolfowitz said Fahim was open to demobilising his forces - provided they could be provided other jobs. Wolfowitz said: "He doesn't just want to move them with their weapons to another part of the country. So I think the ball's back in our court to find a plan for doing that". The commander of US and coalition forces Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill said one proposal under consideration is to hire Fahim's soldiers to work on projects to rebuild 1,200 km of highway linking Kabul to Kandahar and Herat. Wolfowitz also promoted a new US plan to station small units of 40 to 60 soldiers in eight cities outside Kabul to provide security for humanitarian aid workers and US diplomats. The plan was a central topic at his meeting Pres. Karzai.