November 28, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 12, 1422

BONN, Nov 27: Delegates participating in UN-sponsored talks in Germany to forge a new Afghan government on Tuesday are in broad agreement that the former king should act as a figurehead for an interim administration, diplomatic sources said.

But the sources predicted the toughest hurdles would come over the appointment of a deputy, or prime minister, to ex-king Mohammed Zahir Shah, and the sharing out of the key portfolios of defence, interior and finance.

“The hard talking will be over the detailed composition of an interim authority. There is already something close to consensus regarding its leadership,” a European Union diplomat explained.

He noted that 14 out of the 28 delegates attending the talks could be considered royalists, while the rest are not overtly opposed to the idea of the king as a “symbolic figurehead”.

The 87-year-old Rome-based king was ousted in a coup in 1973, but is still commands widespread sympathy in a country nostalgic for its heyday of peace in the 1960’s.

From the ethnic Pashtun majority, the king is also seen as crucial to winning support for a new administration in the south of the country — an area currently without strong leadership following the collapse of the Taliban militia.

But disputes are expected to arise over the sharing out of key posts in an interim government, which in theory will pave the way for a Loya Jirga — or traditional “grand council” of elders — to decide the next step towards a formal government.—AFP