Thursday November 29 03:02 PM EST

2 Afghan Factions Agree in Bonn on Formation of a Kabul Council

By STEVEN ERLANGER The New York Times

The two largest Afghan factions represented at post-Taliban talks in Germany have come to an understanding on the size and rough composition of a national council.

BONN, Nov. 29 The four Afghan factions represented at talks here on a provisional government for Afghanistan have begun to discuss the names of possible legislators, but they have yet to grapple with key issues like how many seats each faction might get and what role the former king of Afghanistan might play, diplomats and delegates said here today.

Nor has there been any serious discussion of a multinational security force that might help keep the peace in the capital, Kabul.

But the leader of the largest faction here, the Northern Alliance, which already holds power in Kabul, was more open today about the possibility of a foreign security force as part of a broader bargain on the shape of a government.

Yunus Qanooni, the Northern Alliance interior minister, told a news conference that while his group thought an all-Afghan force could keep the peace in Kabul, "whenever it is required we are not opposed to the deployment of international forces." The Afghans themselves, he added, "would prefer if the international forces came from Islamic countries."

The other factions, especially the Peshawar group close to Pakistan, are eager to have foreign forces in Kabul to demonstrate that the Northern Alliance does not have a permanent grip on the capital. "It's a demand to establish a primarily neutral political zone," a diplomat said.

Britain is prepared to organize and lead such a force if the Afghans want one, and a senior American diplomat tonight said that Mr. Qanooni's comments today made such a force more likely. "The Northern Alliance now appears ready to concede it," he said, although in return for other concessions that are yet to be negotiated.

Diplomats, United Nations officials and delegates themselves said the talks were at a middle stage, with serious discussions finally beginning over the shape, content and personnel for the provisional executive authority and provisional council that all the factions agreed to set up when they arrived here on Monday.

Daoud Yakub, a member of the Rome delegation loyal to the former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, 87, said there was general agreement on a provisional national council of 150 to 200 members, with the possibility of adding more names to better represent Pashtun ethnic groups formerly allied with the Taliban or fighting them in the south.

A provisional executive of some 15 to 20 administrators would also be chosen, he said. Women would also be represented.

But the major disputes are expected over the percentage of seats and posts each faction might get, and who might fill the most visible posts as leaders or provisional prime minister, say, or hold key ministries, like telecommunications or customs.

Zalmai Rassoul, a delegate close to the king, said they he was optimistic about the way the talks were progressing, and Mr. Qanooni said that he was more optimistic than on Wednesday. "I hope that in the next couple of days we can come to a concrete agreement," he said.

Mr. Qanooni blamed some of the distortions" of his views expressed on Wednesday on a bad translation, and then joked: "I hope there won't be a third translator tomorrow."

In Kabul, some residents reacted to the announcements from Bonn with delight.

In the three weeks since the Northern Alliance entered the city, residents from all of the city's major ethnic groups who have been interviewed by journalists have almost unanimously called for the formation of a multi-ethnic government and for an international peacekeeping force.

Mahmad Shoeb, an ethnic Tajik, said today that he welcomed the idea of giving the former Pashtun a role in the new government. "I think they made a very good decision," he said. "He will be a very fair and proper ruler."

Other residents were more cautious about the move and seemed wary of allowing their hopes to rise after so many years of disappointment.

United Nations and Western officials here are eager that the Afghans decide here on an interim administration, broadly representative of the entire country, that can go to work almost immediately in Kabul to help restore order, stability and be a partner for reconstruction aid.

But the United Nations spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, cautioned journalists that the talks were precarious, given the rivalries and bloodshed of the past, when the international community, he said, "abandoned Afghanistan."

Today, Mr. Fawzi said, the Afghans themselves understood that they "are very close to moving away from the abyss." It has taken them more than 20 years to climb the cliff, he said. "And it can take one little mistake to slip back into the abyss or one courageous, momentous move forward to create the momentum to rebuild Afghanistan."