KABUL'S HOTEL PREPARE FOR VISITORS' RETURN - 2003-02-07

To step through the door of Room 132 of the Kabul Hotel is to fall 20ft to a pile of rubble below. The white-painted doorway is all that remains of the room that, along with a big chunk of the hotel, was bombed during Afghanistan's fierce civil war. Over the coming months, Room 132 will be rebuilt as part of a $26m reconstruction project aimed at turning the 110-room hotel into a five-star attraction with shops, a health club and a Mogul-style garden.