LONDON, Dec 4: The United Nations has said that Afghan factions holding talks in Bonn are likely to reach an agreement on Wednesday if everything goes well.

Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi informed newsmen that the parties were very close to a final agreement, adding the factions had a blueprint for rebuilding the country’s political system on Tuesday.

But Mr Fawzi also warned there were still some hurdles, which he hoped would be resolved by Wednesday.

One of the last hurdles seems to be a long list of 150 names submitted by the delegates for an interim administration.

The United Nations is recommending a 29-member cabinet-style interim authority to rule the country until a broader-based government can be set up.

The other main hurdle is the selection of a head for the new administration.

Some circles are suggesting the top job in the new administration may go to a Pakhtoon leader, Hamid Karzai, who is currently fighting the Taliban near Kandahar.

The name of Abdul Sattar Sirat, an aide to ex-king Zahir Shah, is also under consideration and the two main factions in the talks _ one representing the Northern Alliance and the other Zahir Shah _ have already agreed upon it.

But sources said Hamid Karzai was emerging as a consensus candidate for heading a new administration in Kabul. There was a general feeling of jubilation when the Northern Alliance submitted its list of candidates for the interim administration.

“There were tears in some eyes, including my own,” said Mr Fawzi. Besides a 29-member interim executive, the UN outlined a plan to form an independent council of elders to convene a tribal gathering, or Loya Jirga, to frame a constitution and for holding elections in two years.

Left open in the plan is the role of the ex-king, who has lived in exile in Rome since 1973. Diplomats say the monarch remains popular in Afghanistan and could convene the first Loya Jirga.

The draft deal also provides for deployment of an international security force to maintain law and order in Kabul and to help with the “voluntary disarmament” of Afghan fighters.

Donor countries hope to use the promise of billions in reconstruction aid to prod the Afghans toward an agreement on a broad-based government.

Agencies add: The UN spokesman pointed out that the date the interim authority takes power had yet to be nailed down.

The four Afghan groups, which have been negotiating in a secluded German government guest house near Bonn since Nov 27, reached agreement on a seven-page document which lays out steps on the road to a democratically-elected government envisaged in around three years’ time.

The interim cabinet is to have a term of six months and the final aim of the accord is general elections and “a broad-based, gender-sensitive, multi-ethnic and fully representative government”. One of five posts of vice-president will go to a woman, said Abdullah Abdullah, the Northern Alliance spokesman in Kabul, and the alliance is also expected to retain such important posts as defence minister and interior minister.

The groups have decided to attribute the posts on a weighted quota system. But in his briefing, Fawzi clearly indicated that ethnic considerations as well as professional competence and moral integrity were a criterion.