November 28, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 12, 1422

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NEW DELHI, Nov 27: India wants a “maximum role” in the establishment of a non-aligned and fully representative post-Taliban government in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said on Tuesday.

“We are making efforts so that we have maximum possible role,” Vajpayee said during a parliamentary debate on New Delhi’s Afghan policy, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

India does not want any future Afghan government to allow terrorist activities to take place on its soil, Vajpayee told the upper house.

New Delhi has launched an aggressive diplomatic campaign for a greater say in a post-Taliban set-up — announcing a 100 million dollar preliminary aid package for the reconstruction of the war-torn country.

Last week, India became only the third country to establish a diplomatic mission in Kabul, following the retreat of the Taliban from the Afghan capital on Nov 13.

It also dispatched a team of military doctors and nurses and a large quantity of medicines to Afghanistan.

India’s special envoy on Afghanistan, Satinder K. Lambah, has held talks with Afghanistan’s deposed king Mohammed Zahir Shah and established contacts with some Pakhtoon tribal leaders.

Mr Lambah has also maintained regular dialogue with the Northern Alliance, according to a senior Indian diplomat.

India, like Russia and Iran, has long backed the Northern Alliance in its battle with the Pakistan-supported Taliban, which took power in Kabul in September 1996.

Mr Lambah is attending the UN-sponsored inter-Afghan conference in Germany as an observer.

Mr Vajpayee also denied media reports that quoted him as saying he favoured the inclusion of moderate Taliban elements in a new government.

Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh has dismissed the concept of a “moderate Taliban” as an oxymoron.—AFP