US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Tuesday praised the role of the Netherlands in efforts to rebuild Afghanistan, saying that the new US policy towards the region is based on this ‘extraordinarily successful’ approach.

Clinton was speaking at a one-day UN summit on the future of Afghanistan in The Hague.
‘Our strategic review is building on many of the ideas and principles brought to bear by the Dutch in Afghanistan,’ the secretary of state said.
The Netherlands has some 1,200 troops in the southern region of Uruzgan. The Dutch approach is said to be more people-orientated and to focus on building trust between troops and locals.
Delegates from 72 countries, including Clinton, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and Afghan president Karzai, are at the conference which ends this evening.

For the latest Reuters report on the summit, click here or go to www.dutchnews.nl/international for other international news organisation coverage.