BONN, December 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has decreed the formation of a 70,000-man army within a year to extend his authority beyond the capital Kabul and to neutralize local warlords, he announced at an international conference in Bonn on Monday, December 2.

He said that the ethnically-mixed army would mostly be funded by the United States and Britain and trained by more than 40 countries. It will be deployed to disarm factional leaders controlling swathes of the country, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Karzai stressed that different local military commanders, operating under the authority of the defense ministry, would be declared "illegal" and they had to honor this decree.

"There is not question to that," he said, adding that all the heavy weapons should be handed over to the defense ministry controlled by his ally, the Northern Alliance's military strongman Marshal Fahim Qasim.

Although Karzai said the army needs a year to replace the warlords, his decree, circulated here, said it would "take several years" to complete the army's recruitment, training and equipment.

The decree appoints Karzai as the army's commander-in-chief, a mostly symbolic title.

David Johnson, a member of the U.S. delegation attending the Bonn talks, said the development of the army would cost about 350 million dollars per year for the next two years to train, equip and sustain the army.

"It is a big deal because it sets a structure in place," said Johnson, adding that the United States had trained five battalions with a total of some 2,000 soldiers so far.

Earlier Karzai told the conference, which was held one year after a power-sharing agreement here established his interim government, that the decision on the army formation was made after a "sustained dialogue among the key members of the Defense Commission", a body including local military bandits of different backgrounds.

"We have made a decision to have an army that is small, effective, well-paid and in the service of the nation," he said.

The decree said that the organization of the army will be gradually transformed into four major commands that will, except Kabul, be determined on the basis of strategic and geographical factors.

"The (Afghan army) will not exceed 70,000 soldiers, officers and non-commissioned officers, to include all air and ground forces, air defense forces, civilian employees of the Ministry of Defense, student cadets of post-secondary institutions and other specialized units," the document said.

The army soldiers will be mobilized on voluntary basis "in accordance with accepted principles of balance among different ethnic groups", it said and added that officers would be selected on merit, ethnic representation and national loyalty.

Karzai's decree added that the United Nations and Japan would assist the program for collection of arms and reintegration of local militia soldiers into the government system.

He added that Kabul would work toward the creation of a national police force as well and accelerate officers' training, an effort in which Germany has taken a leading role.

The Afghan leader is struggling to assert his authority outside the capital.

General Rashid Dostam controls the north, ex-mujahedin commander Ismael Khan holds the strategic west while the east and south are controlled by independent ethnic Pashtun soldiers.