Kabul, Dec 7, SPA -- Hamid Karzai was sworn in Tuesday as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president, opening a new chapter for the impoverished country while warning that the wars against terrorism and drugs will require sustained international help. A smiling Karzai, wearing a traditional green robe and ablack lambskin hat, received a standing ovation on hisarrival. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, thehighest-ranking American official to visit Afghanistansince the fall of the Taliban in 2001, was among the 600guests, including 150 foreign dignitaries. After the Afghan national anthem, sung by a children'schoir, reverberated around a restored hall of thewar-damaged former royal palace, Karzai placed his righthand on a copy of the Quran, and repeated an oath of allegiance read to him by Afghanistan's chief justice, Fazl Hadi Shinwari. "I swear to obey and safeguard the provisions of thesacred religion of Islam, to observe the constitution andother laws of Afghanistan and supervise theirimplementation," Karzai said, "and with the assistance ofGod and the support of the nation, to make great andsincere efforts for the happiness and progress of thepeople of Afghanistan." Karzai then swore in his two deputies, Ahmad Zia Massoodand Karim Khalili, members of the country's two largestethnic minorities.--More1048 Local Time 0748 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/222917