KABUL His job title may sound like mission impossible but Tourism Minister Zalmai Rasoul has a vision for a time when foreigners other than aid workers or journalists have reason to visit Afghanistan.

Afghanistan used to attract tens of thousands of tourists in the 1960s and 1970s before the country lapsed into 23 years of conflict, first sparked by the 1979 Soviet invasion.

Hotels have been bombed, major roads reduced to dirt tracks while much of the countryside is still littered with landmines.

But with peace beginning to take hold, Rasoul believes that foreigners will soon want to again visit a land rich in history and breathtaking scenery.

"Afghanistan was and still is a beautiful country," he told AFP.

"There's a lot of work to be done, but we are hoping to do it quickly.

"The vision that we have is for quality tourism, not mass-scale.

We don't want a tourism factory, and we do not care about making so much money.

"We want a select group of tourists at first.

Maybe later we can develop a bigger form of tourism." Rasoul said the main priorities were rebuilding small airports to fly visitors around and refurbishing hotels.

Kabul's only five-star hotel, the Intercontinental, is still subject to frequent power cuts, with buckets in the main dining room catching water from a leaking ceiling.

"The tourist infrastructure has been destroyed. We need to establish hotels and restaurants," he said.

"Air will be the best form of transportation.

Roads will take a long time to rebuild.

"Many of the small airports have been destroyed so we need to rebuild those. We are already on the way to lease small aircraft to fly people from place to place." Rasoul said that the government was mainly looking to the private sector to kickstart the tourist industry.

"The government does not really have the money and has other priorities such as schools and health," he said.

"We are looking for private investment and have passed laws giving foreign companies full access to Afghan markets. They are exempt from all taxes for the next 10 years." Rasoul's Deputy Raz Mohammad Alami, who is also responsible for the country's aviation industry, said the reopening of air routes would boost the prospects for tourism.

Flights to New Delhi, Islamabad, Dubai and Dushanbe have all begun operating in the last couple of months with Tehran soon to join the list.

Alami said the years of war could even be made to benefit Afghanistan's tourism industry.

For example, the Taleban's destruction of the world famous Bamiyan Buddhas could actually entice visitors in the short-term, said the ever-optimistic minister.

"A lot of people might be interested to go there to see what the Taleban have done," he said.

Plans are still being thrashed out for the rebuilding of the giant 1,500-year-old Buddhas with reports that one may remain in ruins as testimony to the Taleban's barbarism.

Alami said he hoped that in two years' time around 20,000-30,000 foreigners would be visiting Afghanistan annually, seeking out the ancient minarets in central Ghazni, western Herat's magnificent 14th century citadel or trout fishing in the remote northeastern Pamir range.

But Rasoul admitted such ambitions would be shattered if Afghanistan lurched back into conflict.

"The notion of tourism is related to security," he said. "Until we have established reliable security inside Afghanistan it's very difficult to expect large numbers of tourists.