WASHINGTON, Nov 18: Top US officials are pressing the Northern Alliance to refrain from forming a government and meet their promise to let the United Nations help put together a multi-ethnic coalition to govern Afghanistan, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

The increased pressure comes as President Burhanuddin Rabbani returned to Kabul on Saturday, five years after the Taliban drove him and his supporters out of the Afghan capital.

Rabbani had earlier promised US officials that he would stay out of Kabul for several weeks, according to the Los Angeles Times.

US officials fear that Rabbani will put together a government that will exclude majority ethnic Pashtuns, which could result in another round of internal warfare similar to the unrest that wracked the country since Soviet forces departed in 1989.

The United Nations has recognized Rabbani’s presidency since 1996, but has warned his Northern Alliance supporters against pushing their case too far.

“The fact is that Kabul fell much more quickly than any of us expected,” a senior US official told the New York Times.

Rabbani spoke to reporters in Kabul on Saturday.

“We will try to form a broad-based government as soon as possible,” Rabbani said, adding that “the victory does not belong to one ethnic group but all Afghan people.”

UN envoy Francesc Vendrell, the deputy to UN special envoy Lakdhar Brahimi, arrived in Kabul on Saturday to promote plans to form a power-sharing council under the aegis of exiled former king Mohammed Zahir Shah, a Pashtun.

Brahimi said Friday he wanted the UN-backed conference, bringing together all factions in Afghanistan, to go ahead next week.

The Northern Alliance has agreed to the conference in principle but wants it held in Kabul, while the United Nations insists that ethnic rivalries would be better served if it were convened at a neutral venue outside Afghanistan.

President George W. Bush also held a National Security Council videoconference meeting from his ranch in Crawford, Texas on Saturday, the two papers reported.—AFP