December 4, 2001	Tuesday	Ramazan 18, 1422

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LONDON, Dec 3: Rival factions in the UN-sponsored Bonn talks have dropped the idea of ex-king Zahir Shah heading the post-Taliban government in Afghanistan and are considering the names of two of his supporters to do the job.

Sources close to the conference told Dawn here from Bonn that the most likely candidate is Abdul Sattar Sirat, a close aide to the former king while the name of a prominent tribal Pakhtoon leader, Hamid Karzai, has also been mentioned to head the next interim government.

The two largest delegations — the Northern Alliance and representatives of Afghanistan’s former King Zahir Shah — put forward the name of former justice minister Abdul Sattar Sirat to serve as the country’s new prime minister.

Sattar Sirat, an ethnic Uzbek is said to be very close to Zahir Shah and has been active in recent years promoting efforts to have the 87-year-old ex-monarch return to help rebuild the country. Diplomats at the conference believe that as an Uzbek, Mr Sirat is ethnically closer to the Northern Alliance but his role as Zahir Shah’s chief envoy also identifies him with the ex-king’s mainly Pakhtoon supporters.

A European Union source close to the talks said the 87-year-old former monarch who has lived in exile in Rome since 1973, was not considered a “practical option” to lead a small interim cabinet, while Professor Rabbani was “not seen as a unifying figure”.

The sources add, the prospect of the ex-king playing some kind of figurehead role is being considered, but it was still not clear exactly how he would fit in.

A spokesman for the royal camp, Zalmai Rasoul, denied that their so-called Rome group had abandoned its demands that Zahir Shah be Afghanistan’s new head of state.

The Northern Alliance, which now controls most of Afghanistan, and the three exile factions in the conference, are still working to choose names for the 25 to 30 member cabinet. UN spokesman Ahmed Fawzi has stressed that the composition of the cabinet is the main sticking point at the protracted talks, which appeared to speed up once proposals to appoint an interim parliament were dropped.

UN mediators want the names decided on neutral ground in Germany. The UN draft envisages an interim council with 25-28 seats, an independent council of elders to convene a national tribal council, or Loya Jirga, at the end of the six-month interim phase, Mr. Fawzi said. Ex-king Zahir Shah would open the Loya Jirga.

The seven-page draft plan represents a mix of ideas by all sides — the Northern Alliance, exiles loyal to former Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah and two smaller exile groups.

Mr Fawzi said, “We want to produce a document that is worth the paper it’s written on, not a weak agreement that they will not respect when they go home.” “They have to agree to every word in this agreement and implement it,” he said. “The international community will be watching very carefully how they implement the agreement.”

Billions of dollars in reconstruction aid would start flowing in when the new government starts working.

Another measure is the creation of a supreme court, and sources close the conference say it is believed this could be aimed at creating a role for the Northern Alliance leader, Burhanuddin Rabbani, whose opposition to some key decisions has delayed a final agreement. While all sides in the Bonn conference were close to an agreement on the fifth day of the talks the Northern Alliance’s old-guard Burhanuddin Rabbani, refused to approve a final list of nominees for a 120-member parliament-style supreme council. The situation turned so serious that his chief delegate Yunus Qanooni threatened to ignore his nominal leader back in Kabul.

To salvage the talks the UN special envoy Mr Brahimi made a personal appeal in a telephone call to Rabbani, and Germany’s Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov, requesting Moscow to exert extra pressure, diplomatic sources said.

The UN equally proposes a multinational peacekeeping force, but does not stipulate the force’s size, mandate or duration. The text says peacekeepers would be deployed at the Afghan administration’s request.

The Northern Alliance, which controls Kabul, has softened its opposition to such a force. The draft text also rules out an amnesty of those convicted of war crimes or human rights violations.