KABUL, Dec 11: UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi rejected concerns on Tuesday over the size of a proposed international security force for Kabul under a post-Taliban power-sharing deal for Afghanistan.

Brahimi, in Kabul for the first time since the Taliban fled the city a month ago, said all Afghan leaders he met had told him they would support the deployment in the Afghan capital of a United Nations-mandated force.

He also said ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani had agreed to hand over power on Dec 22 to the designated head of the new authority, southern Pakhtoon tribal leader Hamid Karzai.

“He has repeated (his) concerns but he also committed himself in no uncertain terms to cooperation and support for this process,” Brahimi told a news conference.

SECURITY: Asked about those remarks, Brahimi said he had not discussed numbers or operational issues, but that Gen Fahim and all other leaders he met said they were fully committed to the Bonn accords “including a force mandated by the United Nations”.—Reuters