At least eight defence ministry appointments have been made and would be announced in the next day or so, Jawed Ludin told reporters at a press conference.

"And they are high-level appointments, including the first deputy minister, the chief of staff and the commander of the central corps," he said.

"All those appointments have been made and it's just a question of issuing a presidential decree through which they will be announced."

Former anti-Soviet mujahedin fighter Bismullah Khan is currently the first deputy defence minister and it was not known why he would be replaced.

Ludin said the launch of the programme to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate (DDR) militiamen was dependent on reforms first taking place at the ministry of defence (MoD) and the overall security sector.

"It's been stated repeatedly that the DDR process depends to a large extent on meaningful reforms within the MoD and also within the national army and also how the national army project comes along," Ludin said.

"It's been a complex project because it involves a range of stakeholders including the Afghan government, the United Nations, the Japanese government because they lead on the DDR process, the American government because they lead on the national army."

The United Nations last month called for urgent implementation of reforms to make the nascent national army and defence ministry more representative of the country's ethnic and regional mix.

Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim has been accused of packing his ministry and the national army with fellow ethnic Tajiks, mainly from the Panjshir valley northeast of Kabul which was the stronghold of assassinated anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Masood.

Disarming militias and building a national army to replace them is one of the major tasks facing Karzai's government.

The United States is leading efforts to rebuild the army, a task which the former commander of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Dan McNeill, described as a "tough road" due to ingrained ethnic and regional tensions and suspicions.

A US military spokesman last week said the national army had 2,700 soldiers ready for duty and a further 1,200 under training. That compares with the goal of a central corps of around 9,000-12,000 by next summer and an eventual 70,000-strong force.

The commander of the peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force, German Lieutenant General Norbert van Heyst, last week said it would be three or four years before the new national police force and army were able to take charge of security in the war-ravaged nation.

WAR.WIRE