To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what funds the UK has provided to the Afghan reconciliation programme, Programme Takhim-e-Solh; and if he will make a statement on the operation of the programme. (164348)

The UK supports President Karzai’s efforts to bring disaffected Afghans into society’s mainstream, providing they renounce violence and accept Afghanistan’s constitution. In this context, the UK spent just under the allocated £500,000 in support of the Program Takhim-e-Solh programme in Afghanistan in the last financial year (2006-07). The UK has allocated a further £330,000 in the current financial year.