"The ministry has undertaken, in compliance with the presidential decree of December 1 of last year, to implement a number of reforms that will give it a more national character," Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters at a press conference.

"These reforms are to make changes to the senior echelons of the ministry of defence so they are politically, regionally and ethnically balanced, to ensure the key senior posts of the central corps of the Afghan National Army are filled with professional officers with a national outlook and not a factional outlook."

Officers should be selected on merit and the ministry should establish a recruitment system open to all eligible Afghans, he said.

Ethnic Tajik Defence Minister Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim has been accused of trying to pack the army with Tajik recruits.

These reforms would enable the ministry to take its lead role in the process of disarming, demobilising and reintegrating (DDR) some 100,000 militiamen which is due to start in coming weeks, the UN spokesman said.

"This reform programme needs to be implemented urgently to... ensure there is broad acceptance and cooperation for the DDR process," de Almeida e Silva said.

The United States is the lead nation assisting with the establishment of the national army.

US Lieutenant General Dan McNeill, former commander of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, in April said it had been "a tough road" building the army due to ingrained ethnic and regional differences and suspicions.

Afghanistan aims by next summer to have a "central core" of 9,000 to 12,000 soldiers, a fraction of the goal of a 70,000-strong army.

Senior defence ministry, UN and US officials visited the northern city of Kunduz on Friday to meet local elders and persuade them to encourage young people to join the new national army, de Almeida e Silva said.

The European Union in April said lasting peace and stability would "depend on extending security outside of Kabul, and the establishment of an effective and genuinely national multi-ethnic Afghan army."

Warlords and militia chiefs in April agreed to work with the central government in rebuilding a multi-ethnic national army.

President Hamid Karzai is trying to extend the influence of his government beyond Kabul to the provinces, which remain largely under the control of local warlords.

WAR.WIRE