New Zealand will not contribute to a fund to pay Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to give up their weapons.
At an international conference last week countries, including Australia, Britain and Japan, pledged about $200 million to the fund.
The fund was proposed by Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. It would pay Taliban fighters to give up their arms, renounce al Qaeda and follow the law. The payments were aimed at less committed fighters, who had joined the Taliban for financial reasons, and were to compensate for losing the pay they received from the Taliban. Mr Karzai estimated he would need $1.4 billion over three years.
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said the Government was willing to support reintegration of fighters back into the community.
"But anything that involves significant amounts of money being used for reintegration needs to be looked at very carefully to make sure there are no funds travelling to people we would not wish to be supported," he told The New Zealand Herald.
Mr McCully said New Zealand had not been asked to contribute. New Zealand resources were better spent in the Bamyan province, where the Provincial Reconstruction Team was working toward handing security and policing over to provincial authorities, he said.
Mr McCully returned from London yesterday. Tomorrow he travels to Australia and will talk to its Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith. The talks were expected to include Fiji and the controversial nomination of Lieutenant Colonel Neumi Leweni to represent it in Wellington.
NZPA