Doha-bound Afghans will show a new image of the war-ravaged country and vie for medals in taekwondo, karate or wrestling in the Asian Games, an Afghan sports official told Xinhua on Monday.

An Afghan delegation grouping 86 members including 51 athletes will take part in the Dec. 1-15 Games in Doha, Qatar.

"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, spokesman of Afghan National Olympic Committee.

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

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

Afghan medal hopefuls are in taekwondo, karate and wrestling, according to the spokesman, who said one Afghan female athlete had won a bronze medal in the 2002 Asian Games held in Busan, South Korea.

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

The Afghan delegation includes five female athletes, which was unthinkable at the times of the Taliban regime.

During the extremist Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, it was a daydream for Afghan females to participate in sports competitions as they 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 polices in politics, social affairs, sports and so on.

Ghurob said over a dozen expatriates based in the United States, Britain and Australia would represent Afghanistan in the Doha Games. Among them, 11 men's basketballers are from the United States, added the spokesman.

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 and they will fly to Doha directly.

According to a taekwondo coach who asked not to be named, an Afghan gold medalist will be awarded with 200 U.S. dollars by the government, a silver medalist will have 150 dollars and a bronze 100 dollars.

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