Afghan president to visit Denmark Saturday

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was set to arrive in Denmark Saturday for a brief visit on his way to a foreign donors' conference in London.

Karzai will have a private meeting with Queen Margrethe at the downtown Copenhagen Amalienborg Palace on Saturday evening, followed by a dinner at the Foreign Ministry hosted by Foreign Aid Minister Ulla Toernaes.

Last year, the Danish Parliament granted 670 million kroner (Ђ90 million; US$110 million) in aid to reconstruct Afghanistan.

On Sunday Karzai, who will be visiting Denmark for the first time, will have talks with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Denmark, which backed the U.S.-led war to oust the Taliban regime in 2001, presently has 160 soldiers in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

On Jan, 19, Denmark's Parliament backed the government's proposal to send 200 more troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, or ISAF.

The troops are set to leave in May or June and will be based in Afghanistan's troubled south, where NATO will take over peacekeeping from U.S. forces, AP reported. V.A.