Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has called for a "holy war" against corruption, which he said is a "cancerous lesion" threatening the survival of the state.
Addressing an anticorruption conference in Kabul on September 1, Ghani said religious clerics should encourage people to participate in the fight.
He also said the government had speeded up fight against corruption, but that it will take time to root it out.
Ghani, who has been in power for nearly a year, said graft in government contracts, land grabbing, illegal drug production, and trafficking are major problems.
He added that education is key to ending corruption.
Transparency International ranks Afghanistan among the most corrupt countries in the world.
The country is also the world's largest producer of opium, which is refined to produce heroin.