KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Jude Law is visiting Afghanistan to promote peace in the war-ravaged country.

Together with director Jeremy Gilley, the Oscar-nominated Law has returned to Afghanistan to help maintain momentum for Peace Day - an annual day on Sept. 21 urging a global cease-fire and nonviolence. The United Nations General Assembly adopted Peace Day in 2001, following a lobbying campaign by Gilley which he documented in the film "Peace One Day."

"When I left Kabul last year, I was hugely moved not by the conflict that I have read so much about, but by the people's courage and the people's sense of hope," Law told reporters in Kabul on Monday. "It seemed that they really want to make this day, the Peace Day, work. And they did," Law said. "People recognize the day, because they recognize that lives could be saved."

Noted for his roles in movies such as "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain," Law helped Gilley produce his second documentary film, called "The Day After Peace." The documentary, which also features former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama, Angelina Jolie, Annie Lennox and Jonny Lee Miller, charts the way Peace Day can be used as a focus for lifesaving activity, Gilley said.

Last year Law and Gilley traveled and filmed in treacherous areas of eastern Afghanistan to help promote the day. The visit was shrouded in secrecy. Law said ordinary Afghans, who marched and prayed as they marked Peace Day last year, are among the film's stars. "It is Peace Day's commitment to take this film as a message from people of Afghanistan to the rest of the world," Law said.

Law's visit coincides with one of Afghanistan's most violent periods since the ouster of the Taliban from power in 2001. More than 3,700 people - mostly militants - have died as a result of the war this year.

By RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press Writer

-Check out Jude Law's Filmography

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