The European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) issued statements in Brussels Monday, welcoming the constitution ratified by the Loya Jirga in Afghanistan over the weekend. 

The EU security chief Javier Solana said in the statement: "I welcome the adoption of the new Afghan Constitution by the Loya Jirga."

"The new Constitution forms the basic foundation for a sovereign and democratic Afghanistan. This important step will help to determine the way ahead in the spirit of the Bonn process, in particular through paving the way for the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections," he stressed.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer hailed it as a move "that will lay the ground for the creation of democratic institutions" and open the way for free and fair national elections this year.

It would also be important for reconstruction and national reconciliation in the war-torn country, he added.

"This new constitution marks significant progress towards a free and prosperous future and it is an achievement of all Afghans," the NATO chief, who took office in the NATO headquarters earlier Monday, said in the brief statement. 

Over 500 delegates to the assembly, or Loya Jirga, on Sunday ratified a draft constitution prepared by Hamid Karzai's government with consensus after three weeks of stormy sessions in a huge tent at a west Kabul campus.

The new constitution would pave the way for general elections slated for later this year, when Karzai is determined to win the country's first presidency through direct election.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2004)