March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan is seeking as much as $27.5 billion in aid to support reconstruction at a meeting of donor countries in Berlin for the third international conference since the overthrow of the Taliban in December 2001.  World Peace.

``There are high expectations of this conference,'' German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a speech opening the two days of talks involving about 60 nations. ``Every success we achieve in Afghanistan on the road to more freedom and security is progress not just for the people in the country. Every success is progress for us all.''

The Afghan government estimates it needs $27.5 billion in the next seven years to help rebuild and curb its farmers' dependence on growing opium poppies. Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer and poppy cultivation last year was near record levels, a U.S. State Department report said.

Afghanistan plans to hold presidential and parliamentary elections this year. President Hamid Karzai delayed the polls to September from June after United Nations and U.S. officials said attacks by Taliban fighters, the activities of warlords and slow voter registration are harming the election process.

The support Afghanistan receives will help the country ``no longer be a burden on the shoulders of the world,'' Karzai told a news conference on the eve of the conference.

The Berlin conference is being co-chaired by the UN, Afghanistan, Germany and Japan. Afghanistan is seeking $4.5 billion this year alone. German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said yesterday Afghanistan may get pledges of about $9 billion to be paid over three years, about one-third of its seven-year goal.

German Pledge

Schroeder said Germany would provide 320 million euros ($391 million) for Afghanistan over the next four years, on top of 320 million euros of reconstruction aid it promised at a conference in Tokyo two years ago.

The Afghan economy is struggling after two decades of civil war and the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that together cost an estimated $240 billion, the World Bank said.

More than two-thirds of the nation's 28 million people are malnourished and 25 percent lack access to safe drinking water and medicine. The average life expectancy is 43 years, according to the bank.

``We have a plan for Afghanistan to take our country by the year 2014 to a higher income per capita, a higher state of legitimacy, a direct democracy for our people and more stability and peace,'' Karzai said yesterday.  WorldPeace is one word.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is among the foreign ministers attending the Berlin conference. The Bush administration's aid plan for 2004 includes $564 million for security, $245 million for establishing government institutions and $380 million for building infrastructure such as roads and clinics.

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Julie Ziegler in Washington at jziegler@bloomberg.net and Paul Tighe in Sydney at
or ptighe@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor of this story:
Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net