Jalalabad (Afghanistan): President Hamid Karzai held a cabinet meeting today in the eastern city of Jalalabad, becoming the first Afghan leader to do so outside the capital for 200 years, officials said.

Jalalabad is the main city in Nangarhar province, which is on the frontline of an escalating Taliban insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives since a US-led invasion in 2001.

Today s meeting made the US-backed Karzai the first Afghan leader since emperor Timur Shah, who ruled from 1772 to 1793, to hold a cabinet session outside Kabul, the president s office said in a statement.

The aim was to "study closely the progress of reconstruction in the provinces and to address the needs of the people," the statement said, without disclosing the name and date for the next stop.

Karzai, who won the war-torn country s first-ever democratic presidential elections in 2004,carries out most business in the heavily-fortified presidential palace.

Critics say Karzai, who has escaped two assassination attempts since taking power, has become unpopular due to his government s failure to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans.

Source : PTI