Profile: Afghan President Hamid Karzai

BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai will start a three-day state visit to China on Tuesday at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Karzai, 53, was picked as leader of the Afghan Interim Authority in December 2001 and was elected president of a transitional government in June 2002.

He was elected president in Afghanistan's first presidential election in October 2004 and was reelected in November 2009.

Karzai visited China in 2002 and 2006, and attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.