Afghan President Hamid Karzai and French first lady Bernadette Chirac inaugurated the French Medical Institute for Children (FMIC) known as Mother and Child hospital in the country's ruined capital on Saturday.

It is the first equipped children health center in this post- war central Asian state built by foreign support in the country's capital Kabul.

A major sanitarium, the Jamhoriat or Republic hospital, is being constructed by the People's Republic of China in downtown Kabul.

Speaking on the inauguration ceremony, the Afghan head of state lauded France and the Agha Khan Development Network (AKDN) for their contributions in constructing the vital children hospital.

The war-ravaged Afghanistan has one of the world's highest infant and maternal mortality rates as one child in four dies does not reach the age of five and every 30 minutes a woman in the country dies from pregnancy-related causes.

The 70-bed hospital built in a three-story building with 9 million U.S. dollars would also employ foreign doctors to provide better service to its patients.

France and the government of Afghanistan as well as AKDN will provide finance support for administrative staff and medical training while the French charitable organization La Chaine de I' Espoir will help to bring surgeons, nurses and medical technicians from Europe and North America.

"I am hopeful to have such health centers in all the provinces of Afghanistan in future," said President Karzai.

Source: Xinhua