In a statement read on Kabul television, Karzai said the 22 generals and officers had been appointed "for the better implementation of government policies in civil and military administrative reforms and for better implementation of the formation of the national army."

The United Nations had called for urgent reform of the Tajik-dominated ministry to make it more representative of Afghanistan's ethnic mix.

Ethnic Pashtun Major General Farooq Wardak has been appointed first deputy defence minister, replacing General Bismullah Khan, a close ally of Tajik Defence Minister Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

Khan was appointed chief of staff.

Defence Minister Fahim had been accused of packing the ministry with fellow Tajiks from the powerful anti-Taliban Northern Alliance faction which dominates the government of Karzai, who is a Pashtun.

Reform of the ministry will allow the launch of a delayed programme led by Japan to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate some 100,000 militiamen.

Militiamen have been reluctant to hand over their weapons while the ministry is seen as dominated by a rival faction.

Some of the disarmed militiamen will be integrated into the new national army, which currently numbers around 6,000 against a forecast eventual strength of 70,000.

Afghan officials and foreign observers have said it will be another three years before the army and new national police force can fully take charge of security in the country.

A 5,500-member International Security Assistance Force under NATO command is helping ensure security in Kabul while a 12,500-strong US-led coalition is hunting militants, mainly in the southeast border region.

The United States is also leading efforts to train the new army.

In July some 1,000 Afghan National Army soldiers backed by US and Italian troops took part in their first major combat operation against suspected Taliban militants in southeast Afghanistan.

WAR.WIRE