KABUL (PAN): Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kai Eide Wednesday leaned on the new government of President Karzai to demonstrate greater political will in combating the scourge of endemic corruption. With Karzai expected to unveil his new cabinet within days, the top UN diplomat in Afghanistan noted that fighting corruption did not necessarily succeed through new strategies, but through the implementation of existing laws. "Structures do exist; a legal system does exist that is able to a large extent to address corruption. So in my mind, it's not the creation of a new structure that should be at the heart of our discussions but the political determination to make use of the structures in place," he observed. Fighting figured high on the United Nations' agenda for Afghanistan, Eide told a news conference organised on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day. Also present on the occasion were key government officials involved in combating corruption. Also on Wednesday, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) head in Afghanistan Jean-Luc Lemahieu said: "Afghanistan has taken a number of significant steps but an enormous amount of work remains to be done." Separately, Eide conferred with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on his civilian agenda proposals for Afghanistan, articulated at the ISAF ministerial meeting in Brussels earlier in the week. While stressing a more compact structure for coordinating civilian assistance in order to move forward, Eide called for UN, the International Security Assistance Force, the European Union and key donors to ensure they worked together in a more coordinated and streamlined manner. "There is no other choice. We all have to change our mindset and be more geared towards a coordinated approach," remarked the Norwegian diplomat, who said President Obama's strategy had provided a new momentum in the partnership between Afghanistan and the international community. But he hastened to explain the new momentum was still fragile and must be consolidated with the appointment and work of the new Afghan government and the preparations for the London conference on 28 January 2010. mud/pr