The UN Agency for Population Fund ( UNFPA) would support the government of Afghanistan to launch a national census, Executive Director of the agency Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said Monday.

"UNFPA is supporting the government to conduct its first full national census. The result will help determine the approaches needed to address Afghanistan's most pressing social and economic development needs," she told newsmen at a press conference after arriving in Kabul.

The project would be launched in 2008 while a pilot census will begin by July this year.

No complete census has taken place in Afghanistan over the past 30 years.

The project for national census would cost around 60 million U. S. dollars, Obaid's colleague and Regional Director to Asia- Pacific Sultan Aziz said.

Source: Xinhua