Foreign investors are preparing to pour billions of dollars into Afghanistan as the country struggles to regain its place in the global economy, according to Commerce Minister Sayed Mustafa Kazemi.

While US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld just declared an end to major combat operations in Afghanistan, foreign businessmen have already been sounding out opportunities in the war-ravaged country.

"Since the fall of the Taliban we have been focusing on attracting foreign investors and businessmen," Kazemi told AFP in an interview.

Entrepreneurs, however, have complained of the weak rule of law, excessive bureaucracy and corruption.

The minister said Kabul had cut red tape to make it easier to obtain

business licences.

"We have done some work but we still have more to do."

While security problems deterred some investors, Kazemi said there were plenty of "brave" ones.

"In a country like Afghanistan -which has been a war zone for 23 years -- minor clashes between the different groups are not unusual but in general it's not that much of a concern," he said.

"There are those investors or businessmen who are afraid they don't have the capability or courage, but there are many brave businessmen who are doing business with Afghanistan and they are still doing it."

One US firm was planning to build four cement factories with an initial investment of 400 million dollars, which would rise to as much as 1.5 billion badly-needed dollars, he said.

Details are expected to be announced shortly.

Afghanistan's 2002 gross domestic product (GDP) was an estimated 4.4 billion dollars, according to an Asian Development Bank report last week, with per capita GDP just 170 dollars.

Chinese, Turkish and Iranian firms have also expressed interest in the cement business, which is vital to reconstruction.

In the past three months, 3,500 investment proposals were registered, ranging from 20,000 dollars to 180 million, he said.

A Hyatt hotel project carried a tag of about 50 million dollars while construction of the Kabul Hotel is estimated at 27 million dollars. Kazemi said he had earlier in the week received proposals from Afghan-US joint ventures to invest in the air transport, energy and agriculture sectors.