Kabul, Afghanistan ? Afghanistan on Wednesday hailed decisions to cancel the impoverished country’s debts to the United States, Russia and Germany, but the country likely will remain dependent on foreign aid as it recovers from decades of war.

Afghanistan owed $108 million to the United States and $44 million to Germany from loans before the 1979 Soviet invasion. Russia claimed it was owed about $10 billion from loans to a puppet communist government in the early 1990s.

“After 30 years of devastation, we are starting from nothing and any move such as this helps the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” said Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai.

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will forgive the entire debt, following a similar pledge from Russia on Monday and from Germany at a donors’ conference last week.

Even with the loans forgiven, Afghanistan looks set to remain reliant on years of foreign aid. More than 90 percent of the government’s $4.75 billion budget in 2005 was financed by international donors, and Karzai has said his government will need propping up for about a decade.