Kilometre 43, Kabul-Kandahar Road (Afghanistan), Dec. 17 (Reuters): US helicopter gunships circled and hundreds of troops stood guard today as Afghan President Hamid Karzai opened a refurbished highway symbolising the promise and dangers of post-war reconstruction.

Soldiers stood guard along the route to the ceremony near the village of Durrani southwest of Kabul, a reminder of repeated Taliban attacks that killed nine people during work on the road and wounded 16.

Three workers were kidnapped, including two Indians who remain in Taliban hands, but US contractors Louis Berger said work had been completed in an unprecedented nine months.

Karzai and his US backers, anxious to show that the Iraq war has not blunted their commitment to rebuilding Afghanistan, have made repair of the badly damaged link between the main cities of Kabul and Kandahar their top development priority.

So it was no coincidence that a ceremony yesterday to mark completion of its first phase coincided with a crucial national meeting to chart a course to presidential elections next year.

“This is one of the best days of our lives in the rebuilding of Afghanistan and bringing back to us the life that we all desire like any other people in the rest of the world,” Karzai said.