BREAKING NEWS

Afghan leader Karzai to meet Merkel in Berlin

BERLIN - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will hold talks with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on May 16 ahead of a NATO summit in the United States, Merkel's spokesman said on Friday.
Spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference that Merkel and Karzai would discuss preparations for the May 20-21 summit in Chicago and would sign a bilateral cooperation agreement.
Germany has the third largest military contingent serving in the NATO force in Afghanistan after the United States and Britain.
At the Chicago summit, the United States hopes to be able to announce it has secured commitments worth 1 billion euros a year to fund Afghan security forces. Most foreign forces are expected to have left Afghanistan by the end of 2014.