Kabul: Doha-bound Afghans will present a new image of the war-torn country and vie for medals in taekwondo, karate and wrestling in the Asian Games, said an Afghan sports official.

"We have two major goals for the Games. The first one is to show a new Afghanistan, which suffered decades of war, to the world," said Ghulam Jilani Ghurob, spokesperson of the Afghan National Olympic Committee.

An Afghan delegation of 86 members, including 51 athletes, is to participate in the Dec 1-15 Games in Doha, Qatar.

"The delegation wants to display that Afghanistan is experiencing peace after war and is undertaking reconstruction," Ghurob added.

He said the second goal was to show Afghans' active participation in international sporting events and to bring pride to the country by winning some medals.

According to Ghurob, Afghans have a good prospect of winning medals in taekwondo, karate and wrestling.

Afghan athletes will participate in 11 sports - karate, track and field, bodybuilding, boxing, basketball, snooker, fencing, judo, taekwondo, wushu and wrestling.

The Afghan delegation includes five women athletes, which was unthinkable during the Taliban regime.

During the extremist Taliban regime (1996-2001), Afghan women were not allowed to participate in sports competitions and were even forbidden from education and work.

Afghanistan was banned by the International Olympic Committee from the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, as the Taliban regime carried out extremist policies in politics, social affairs and sports.

Ghurob said over a dozen expatriates based in the US, Britain and Australia would represent Afghanistan in the Doha Games.

Because of long-time war, millions of Afghan refugees still stay overseas, although about five million refugees have come back since the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Due to a shortage of facilities, most Afghan athletes had to go to Iran or India to receive training weeks ahead of the Asian Games.

According to a taekwondo coach, an Afghan gold medallist would be awarded with $200 by the government, a silver medallist $150 dollars and a bronze $100.

"Despite various difficulties, we would actively join the coming Asian Games, and try to find more friends across the world especially in Asia," added Ghurob.