March 23, 2002	Saturday	Muharram 8, 1423

LONDON: Turkey will take over command of the international security force in Kabul from Britain, but only after the April 30 deadline set by the UK defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, London sources said on Thursday.

Although the long-awaited agreement has yet to be officially announced, the sources said that Turkey had agreed to command the force after Washington offered a US dollars 227 million aid package.

The issue was discussed by Mr Hoon and his Turkish counterpart, Sabahattin Cakmako-glu, at a meeting in London on Thursday. The matter was also raised by Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, during talks on Wednesday in Ankara.

British officials who have been pressing Turkey for weeks to take over the command said they expected it to take place in May. Major-General John McColl, head of the international security assistance force (ISAF), will then return to Britain with up to 400 headquarters staff.

Britain handed over control of the subordinate ISAF brigade to Germany on Wednesday.

The number of British troops in the force, to which 18 countries — but not the United States — are contributing, will fall from 1,600 to below 1,000.

The UK government announ-ced on Monday that 1,700 British troops, led by a Royal Marine commando group, will join entirely separate combat missions under US command in the east and south of Afghani-stan. Meanwhile the future of ISAF remains unclear.

Although the UN mandate runs out at the end of June, Britain and other countries have made it clear that they will not leave the new interim government in the lurch.

But the New York Times reported that a confidential US review had concluded that it would take many months to train and equip even a modest Afghan force. It said that 4,000 Afghan troops would be trained and equipped by the end of September, rising to 12,000 by September next year.

Most defence experts say that at least 20,000 troops, probably many thousands more, will be needed to stabilise the country, still beset by feuding warlords and banditry.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service