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Afghanistan and Pakistan

My Lords, on the participation in the London conference, I shall have to come back to the noble Baroness on who will be there. I agree that, notwithstanding the many difficulties that we have in Iran, it is very important in that region and should be doing its bit towards Afghanistan. On whether the London conference will deal with aid, I was informed last week by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development that in Afghanistan an extraordinary amount of aid goes into the country. At the moment, the problem is with capacity. If there are still some gaps in relation to aid, I am sure that that will be addressed by the conference—and I shall certainly come back to the noble Baroness to verify that. However, as I understand it, the amount of aid is not the problem—it is the capacity to use the aid on the ground.