KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai has made his boldest bid yet to assert authority beyond the capital, wresting governors and warlords into a deal to hand over millions of dollars in customs duties to Kabul's near-empty treasury.
But enforcing the new orders won't be easy in a fractious country where local rulers keep a tight hold on their money and militias to run their private fiefdoms.
Karzai sent top-level Finance Ministry officials to four key border provinces last week to ensure the revenues start flowing.
So important was the first and biggest target — the wealthy western province of Herat — that Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani flew there personally to make sure Gov. Ismail Khan pays up. Herat straddles lucrative trade routes along a largely peaceful border with neighboring Iran that rake in over a $1 million a day. Ghani is staying a week.
Karzai has warned he'll fire those who fail to comply with the accord, signed two weeks ago by 12 governors and two warlords. And if all else fails, he's threatened to take a more serious step: dissolve the government and resign.
"His credibility is on the line," Vikram Parekh, a senior analyst from the International Crisis Group, said of Karzai.
The government Karzai heads is desperate for the cash.
In Kabul, demonstrators have taken to the streets several times this month to protest unpaid salaries, unemployment and the slow pace of reconstruction. In the countryside, Taliban rebels have markedly stepped up attacks.
A quarter century of wars have brought Afghanistan's economy to its knees. Today, the country imports everything from food and clothes to electronics. Afghanistan's most profitable export is opium, the illegal sale of which is still believed to finance some warlords' militias.
Announcing the new policy two weeks ago, Karzai said "every penny generated anywhere" should be submitted to Kabul "without any sort of excuses, argument or delay."
A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested Karzai launched the effort because he felt stymied in leading the country by a lack of government funds.
Along with the delegation to Herat, another ministry team flew to Balkh province, home of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, another powerful warlord who controls natural gas and oil reserves in the north, as well as gateways to the former Soviet states in Central Asia.
Two other delegations were sent to Kandahar in the south and Nangarhar in the east, provinces occupying major trade routes with Pakistan.
The eastern province of Kunar was the first to come through with any significant contribution, handing over $400,000. The cash allowed the Finance Ministry to start paying civil servants Wednesday for the first time in two months.
The money came from Kunar only after Karzai appointed his former spokesman, Sayed Fazel Akbar, as governor in April.
His predecessor, however, was reluctant to give up the post. Akbar was forced back to Kabul after his vehicle came under rocket attack. He returned only after U.S. pressure eased out former Gov. Sayed Shajan, a diplomat said. It's unclear whether force was used.
Other governors and warlords will likely be even tougher.
After signing the customs agreement in Kabul, Herat's governor Khan returned home and promptly gave a speech to cheering supporters reportedly reaffirming that he was the province's sole leader and nobody could remove him.
Parekh said the crackdown on missing customs revenues was likely to increase the power of the strongest warlord, Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, who dominates the capital.
Fahim is said to profit from emeralds mined in his Panjshir valley stronghold, as well as border trade farther north toward Tajikistan. His troops captured Kabul from retreating Taliban fighters in 2001 and remain entrenched in the city.