The foreign exchange reserve of the post-war Afghanistan has reached 1.5 billion US dollars, a figure unregistered in the past, Vice President of the country's central bank "Da Afghanistan Bank" said Sunday.

"Our foreign exchange reserve currently is 1.5 billion US dollars and the amount would boost further," Samiullah Ibrahimi told Xinhua.

The country's foreign exchange reserve, he added, was 300 million US dollars in 2002 while in 2003 it almost doubled and reached to 500 million US dollars.

"The country's foreign exchange reserve in 2004 was recorded 1 billion US dollars and currently it is 1.5 billion US dollars," the official added.

Major portion of the said amount has been contributed by international community to help rebuild the war-torn central Asian state as the cash-stripped war-battered nation is largely depended on the donors' support.

Meantime, the war-shattered nation's foreign debt is almost twice bigger than the country's foreign exchange reserve.

"The country's foreign debt is 2.5 billion US dollars with 1 billion US dollars from Russia," Minister for Economy Mohammad Amin Farhang confirmed to Xinhua.

Commenting on the post-war administration's arrears, Farhang said the new government liability is only 350 million US dollars with majority of it soft loan.

However, he was hopeful that except Russia the other nations have hinted to write off their debts.

Russia, the heir of former Soviet Union has been asking Kabul to repay the 1 billion US dollars provided to former regimes in Afghanistan while Afghan side disagreed with and said the amount was spent in military field to keep on Red Army's presence in the country during the war between Soviet Union and Afghanistan.

Source: Xinhua