London ? Afghanistan set out a plan Tuesday to tackle problems from opium production to corruption and terrorism, as envoys from more than 60 nations pledged they would help the shattered nation along the road to peace and self-sufficiency.

Dignitaries at the opening of a two-day conference on Afghanistan’s future spoke proudly of the country’s achievements since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the hard-line Taliban regime in 2001.

But they agreed that with desperate poverty widespread and violence flaring, it still had a long way to go.

“From a nation held hostage by terrorism and by terrorists, Afghanistan today is a nascent democracy,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

However, he said, “our optimism is necessarily tempered by the serious challenges ahead, … (including) terrorism, extreme violence, the illicit narcotics industry and the corruption it nurtures. … We cannot be complacent.”

The five-year plan unveiled at the conference, dubbed the “Afghanistan Compact,” laid out targets for President Hamid Karzai’s government in areas including security, economic development and counternarcotics efforts.

They illustrated the scale of the task ahead and demonstrated how utterly ruined the nation was by wars over two decades.

Afghanistan promised to build a professional army and police force, shut down all militias by the end of 2007 and teach its officials about human rights.

“Afghanistan is proud to be once again a member of the family of nations,” Karzai said at a news conference. “And Afghanistan would like to continue on this road toward more success, toward prosperity.”

International donors vowed in the compact to provide funds and other support to help Afghanistan meet its new goals.