Afghan Talks Open on Hopeful Note

B O N N, Germany, Nov. 27 -- Representatives of rival Afghan factions attending historic talks in Germany to determine the future of Afghanistan agreed in principle to work toward the establishment of a broad-based interim administration.

Members of four Afghan delegations gathered around a table in a hotel in Koenigswinter near Bonn today at the start of talks aimed at ending more than two decades of civil war. Many of the representatives were meeting for the first time in 23 years.

After their first closed session, the representatives agreed on a common goal to set up a transitional government before convening a national assembly of tribal leaders, or a loya jirga, U.N.spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters in Koenigswinter today.

The delegates then broke up into a shifting series of groups for further talks aided by the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi.

Also present were observers from the United States, Russia, Britain, Pakistan, Iran and India.

'The Responsibility Is Yours'

Despite warnings from U.N. officials and some Northern Alliance leaders that the talks were unlikely to produce a solution for the tricky situation in Afghanistan, there was a general sense of optimism among delegates at the Petersberg hotel today.

Opening the talks, German Foreign Minister JoschkaFischer told the delegates they bore a responsibility to build a new Afghanistan free from bloodshed.

"I urge you to forge a truly historic compromise that holdsout a better future for your torn country and its people,"he said. "The responsibility is yours. No one can relieve you of it and no one wants to."

But he pledged continuing international support, including a budget of more than $70 million that the German administration had put aside for postwar Afghan reconstruction, subject to the formation of a stable government.

The meeting came amid intense international pressure on various Afghan factions to arrive at a solution that would provide peace and stability to a country wracked by war and poverty.