FRATTINI HEADS TO AFGHANISTAN FOR KARZAI INAUGURATION

FRATTINI HEADS TO AFGHANISTAN FOR KARZAI INAUGURATION

(ANSA) - Mar, November 3 - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini will head to Kabul on November 19 for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's second inauguration.

Speaking from Marracesh, where Frattini opened a forum on Middle Eastern relations, the foreign minister called Karzai's re-election ''a new beginning for Afghanistan''.

Frattini said that he and other international representatives ''are going to celebrate Karzai's reinstatement, but we also expect him to rid his country of corruption and sign a new contract with his people''.

Election officials in Afghanistan on Tuesday confirmed Karzai's victory in the August elections, after his only rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of run-off elections over the weekend.