The Secretary-General added that our re-shaped relationship must be built on a gradual but steady transfer of responsibilities and authority from international stakeholders to Afghan institutions.

UN: Secretary-General

"We would have preferred in particular that this text set more binding and shorter deadlines for the transfer of responsibilities and the political transition, " Mr de Villepin said on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels.

BBC: Jacques Chirac, Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schroeder

The transfer of more legal responsibilities to Mr. Klein was seen as an encroachment on the turf of News Corp.

WSJ: Murdoch Selects Advisers Carefully