KABUL, Feb 26: Afghan provincial authorities on Tuesday criticized plans to develop a national army and rein in powerful warlords which the United States has warned are the biggest threat facing the new administration.

As the first unit of the army held its second day of formal training under the eye of European military officers, provincial officials complained the force was being organized without consultation or adequate planning.

They also showed little understanding of why the army is seen as crucial to national stability, arguing that it should be gathered and trained at the provincial level where local warlords still hold sway.

“By ordering us to send 20 men to build up a national army they are just trying to waste time,” said Khalid Pashtoon, the spokesman for Kandahar provincial Governor Gul Agha.

“We do not like the set-up of the army in the way they have chosen.”

He was referring to the defence ministry of the interim government in Kabul, which is run by the ethnic minority Tajik faction of the Northern Alliance.

The Tajiks and other minority factions filled the power vacuum in Kabul after US bombing forced the Taliban to pull out in November. They now control most ministries of the new cabinet, to the anger of the dominant Pashtun ethnic group which has traditionally ruled Afghanistan.

Interim deputy leader Hidayat Amin Arsala Tuesday said ordinary Afghans welcomed the international force but also wanted a proper national army.

“After having suffered for so long in the hands of different forces they would like to see an end to that situation and they would like the involvement of the international community in the peacekeeping area,” he said at a press conference in Islamabad where he was holding talks with Pakistani leaders.

“In addition to that of course they would want to see that Afghanistan comes up with a proper national army and a national police force which we hope we will have in the near future because we are working on it.”

Arsala said reports of ethnic persecution and fighting were isolated incidents.

“These are quite limited if you compare with what was there in the past.”

Despite the importance attached to the new army and the support it has received from the international community, interim Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a Tajik, has refused to talk to reporters on the matter.

His office says he has been busy working behind the scenes to gather 20 men from each province to form the first battalion of the army, although only about 200 of the expected 600 recruits had arrived Monday for the start of training by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

US helicopters brought another 40 Afghan soldiers here from Kandahar for military training, a spokesman for the international force said Tuesday.

“The soldiers I have seen were pretty young, and pretty fit. They were smiling,” said ISAF spokesman Graham Dunlop.

Washington and its European allies believe that building a national army is a priority for the interim government to avoid a return to warlordism.

“Clearly the major overall challenge is how to prevent a return to warlordism and conflict among major armies,” US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said on Sunday.

“There are a number of ideas as to what can be done, but clearly the ultimate answer is the building of a national army.”

Khuda Dad Irfani, the director of military affairs in the central province of Ghazni, complained that provinces should send recruits in proportion to their share of the overall population.

“We do not want recruitment to be based on administrative divisions of Afghanistan which have not been fairly set-up from the very beginning,” he said.

Analysts believe it will take years to create an effective new army strong enough to disarm the warlords and establish the writ of the Kabul administration in the restive countryside where tribal strongmen still hold sway.

US flies 40 Afghans to Kabul: US helicopters have brought 40 Afghan soldiers here from Kandahar for training in the national army that is being set up, a spokesman for the international force said Tuesday.

“Forty soldiers were transported from Kandahar to here by the United States,” said ISAF spokesman Graham Dunlop.

Asked whether any members of the former Taliban regime were brought Monday in the US helicopters, Dunlop said: “I’m not sure at all.”

Dunlop stressed that the selection of soldiers for the new national army was in the hands of Afghan authorities and the defense ministry.—AFP