New Delhi: Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in New Delhi on March 5 on a four- day visit, during which India and Afghanistan will sign a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and discuss further measures to strengthen ongoing rebuilding and reconstruction efforts in the war-ravaged country.

Karzai, who is on his second visit to India in 13 months, will on March 5 hold wide- ranging discussions with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the entire gamut of bilateral relations.

The Iraq crisis, developments in the Middle East and the Indo-Pak standoff are among a host of issues that is expected to figure during the parleys.

Karzai will call on President A P J Abdul Kalam and also have meetings with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi.

The PTA will help substantially boost Indian exports to Afghanistan and pave the way for easier two-day trade.

The Afghan President will receive an Airbus gifted by India on March 7. This is the last of the three Airbus gifted to Afghan airlines Ariana by India. The two aircraft gifted earlier are already in operation in the international sector, including for Haj flights.

Karzai will leave for Shimla on March 7, where he will receive an honorary doctorate. It will be a trip down memory lane for the Afghan leader, who had his early education in Shimla. He will fly back to Kabul on March 8.

As part of its assistance, India intends to work with the Afghan government to focus on infrastructure development, road construction, water, irrigation and power supply, Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh said at a function held to hand over 57 buses to the neighbouring nation.

The Minister said India would continue to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan.

"Transport has been identified as an important area of assistance to Afghanistan. Out of our total commitment of $ 100 million, $ 31.5 million has already been operationalised into various projects. The remaining $ 68.5 million would be utilised over the next couple of years," he said.

A total of 57 buses manufactured by Tata Engineering and Ashok Leyland were handed over to Mohammad Amin Farhang, Minister for Reconstruction of Afghanistan for public transportation in Kabul and Kandahar.

With this, 192 buses would have been provided to Afghanistan. An additional 92 buses would be provided by the end of this month, Singh said.

Budget subsidy, training programmes for 500 Afghan officials in policing, journalism, medicine and computer training are among the steps taken by India to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, he said.

PTI