London - The British government welcomed the pledge for improved governance made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai during his inauguration in Kabul on Thursday.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Karzai's speech had shown a commitment to tackling issues such as cronyism and corruption during his new term in office.

It was also noted that Karzai had promised to push forward the so- called Afghanization of security by supporting the training of the Afghan army and police.

The Afghan president now needed to follow up his pledge with a series of "strong and clean" appointments to his new cabinet.

"Obviously there are clear expectations of Karzai's second term and beyond of the entire international community. We want to see him deliver on behalf of all Afghan people," the spokesman said.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is in Kabul for the inauguration, said that Karzai's comments were different in "scope and detail" to what he had said before.

"Obviously what matters to us and to the British people is turning words into deeds, but I think we have got a very, very clear set of commitments now,", Miliband told British television. (dpa)