KABUL, Dec 6: President Hamid Karzai has held discussions with arch rival Yunus Qanuni over a possible position in the next Afghan government, a spokesman for Mr Karzai said on Monday.

Mr Qanuni, from the second largest ethnic group, the Tajiks, was a distant second in the poll. Belonging to the Northern Alliance, which seized Kabul three years ago, Mr Qanuni was education minister in Hamid Karzai's interim government before resigning to run in the election.

"There were talks about Qanuni's possible role in the formation of the future government," Jawed Ludin, a spokesman for Mr Karzai, told a regular press briefing. After a quarter century of conflict most Afghans are hoping Mr Karzai can deliver peace and rebuild the economy now that he has won a mandate from the people.

But the Afghan government remains dependent on a 18,000-strong U.S. force and 8,400 NATO-led peacekeepers, while its own national army, police and security forces are being built up. -Reuters