NEW YORK - The time has come to transform the relationship between Afghanistan and its partners to enable greater responsibility on the part of Afghans themselves and an increasingly supporting role for the international community as the country strives to achieve peace and development, a senior United Nations official said today.

“Concrete steps must be taken by the international community to allow Afghans to be in charge of, and lead, processes while providing the capacity-building and support required for Afghan institutions to take on this role, including in civilian areas,” Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy told a meeting of the Security Council.

“At the same time, the Afghan Government must concretely demonstrate that it can deliver on the accountability required for a real transition process to be sustainable,” added Mr. Le Roy, who presented Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on Afghanistan to the Council.

Mr. Ban called in his report for the international community to support the Afghan political process and to respect the people’s own understanding of their country.

“There is no sovereignty without capacity and responsibility, and the purpose of the transition is to ensure that the Government of Afghanistan has both sufficient capacity and sufficient responsibility to exercise actual sovereignty,” the Secretary-General stated.

Mr. Le Roy noted that, in the midst of a military surge and heightened military tempo, there is a “crowded” political calendar in the months ahead, with National Assembly elections planned for September, the peace jirga announced by President Hamid Karzai in just over a month, and a major international gathering on the way forward for the country that is scheduled to take place later this year in Kabul.

“There is a risk that the concept of transition, on which we have collectively agreed to pin our political and security strategy in Afghanistan, will be overtaken by such events,” he said.

“Our focus must remain firmly on ensuring that ‘Afghanization’ actually becomes more than the slogan it has been thus far.”

Mr. Le Roy added that an “unprecedented” level of international attention and resources is being invested in Afghanistan, in support of priorities that have been agreed with the Afghan Government and of a strategy of transition to greater Afghan responsibility that has been jointly endorsed at the London Conference of 28 January.

“We must work together and with determination to take advantage of the opportunity to make a difference that this alignment of unity of effort, strategies, priorities and resources presents.”

The Council will debate the mandate renewal of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in the next few days, and is expected to take a decision next week.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr. Le Roy said there was unanimous support of the work of UNAMA and for the renewal of its mandate for another 12 months. He added that there might be some slight change in the mandate, in light of the request from Mr. Karzai for the mission to provide technical and logistical support for the upcoming parliamentary polls in September.

Also regarding elections, he said the Council had welcomed the fact that Mr. Karzai informed the new Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, that two members of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) will be internationals. “The UN will provide names for that appointment,” noted Mr. Le Roy.

Last month Mr. Karzai signed a decree giving him the power to appoint all five members of the Commission, which is supposed to be an independent body.

According to Afghanistan’s Electoral Law, three of the five members of the Commission – mandated to investigate fraud, as well as provide guidance, technical assistance and support – are internationals appointed by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan.