US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and senior officials from over 60 countries and international organisations are scheduled to attend next Tuesday's conference to discuss the rebuilding of the troubled nation.

Afghan and NATO security forces have already stepped up security in Kabul to guard against possible Taliban attacks from marring the gathering.

The Taliban's nine-year insurgency against the Western-backed government is now at its deadliest.

Militants last month targeted a landmark Afghan peace conference in Kabul, firing rockets towards the gathering during a speech by President Hamid Karzai that ultimately resulted in the sacking of the interior minister and spy chief.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said its troops along with Afghan security forces raided a house and detained two "facilitators" of insurgent attacks in Kabul.

One was wanted over three suicide attacks on the city and both "were considered a direct threat to the international Kabul conference," ISAF said.

The men surrendered peacefully after troops using a loudspeaker to call on them to exit the house, ISAF said.

Tuesday's conference is a bid by Afghan government officials to call for a start to the spending of billions of dollars of pledged development funds.

Officials will present donors with their long-term national development strategy, following a donors' meeting in London in January.

Afghanistan is trying to rebuild with the help of international community, mainly Western powers following the overthrow of the Taliban regime in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The efforts have however, been hampered by an Islamic insurgency launched by the Taliban following their ouster. The violence from the insurgency has peaked to new record levels since early last year.

earlier related report
Canada hands over Kandahar security to US military
Ottawa (AFP) July 15, 2010 - Canada relinquished command of Kandahar City in southern Afghanistan to the US army's 82nd Airborne Division on Thursday, as it begins to wind down its mission and NATO reshuffles its troops.

Canada's footprint in the war-torn nation has now shrunk to a brigade-sized unit south and west of the city in Dand, Daman and Panjwaii districts, after handing over the Zhari and Arghandab districts two weeks ago, Lieutenant Colonel Craig Dalton told a televised press conference.

Its entire force of 2,800 troops in Afghanistan will leave the country next year, as planned, after eight years spent routing insurgents as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Canadian soldiers will focus on a "smaller area of operations" during the transition while NATO triples its number of troops in the region to 21,000 due largely to a US surge, Dalton said.

The Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police will also double in size in the province this year, he added.

"This rising tide of security will set the conditions for the Afghans to defeat the insurgency," Dalton said.

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