Afghan Talks Open on Hopeful Note

B O N N, Germany, Nov. 27, 2001 -- 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.

At stake is billions of dollars in aid from 18 nations, including the United States and Britain, to rebuild Afghanistan.

Call for New Era of Peace

Speaking to reporters after the opening session today, Fawzi said all four Afghan delegations used similar language to call for a new era of dignity and peace.

Although the Northern Alliance represents the largest and most powerful of the four delegations, Fawzi said there were unambiguous signs that the alliance was not seeking unilateral power despite its recent military successes against the Taliban.

The Northern Alliance now controls the capital of Kabul and more than half of Afghanistan.

The other delegations include exiles backing Zahir Shah,the former king of Afghanistan, and two smaller exile groups.

Showing Pashtun Support

Despite the overwhelming sense of optimism at the meetings, there were lingering doubts about the representation of Afghanistan's biggest ethnic group, the Pashtuns.

The Taliban, which has been dominated by Pashtuns, was not included in the talks in Germany.

But in a strong showing of Pashtun support, Hamid Karzai, a well-regarded Pashtun leader, telephoned the conference from inside Afghanistan earlier today.

Reading excerpts from the telephone conversation, Fawzi said Karzai reiterated that Afghans were united and not divided. "We have been made extremely poor and vulnerable but we are a strong people who would like to assert our will and a sense of self-determination," he read.

Looking to the Former King

Despite earlier indications of a likely rift between supporters of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the nominal president of Afghanistan, and supporters of the former king, the U.S. government's Central Asia envoy James Dobbins told The Associated Press there were indications that the factions could agree to establish ex-monarch as a uniting figure in Afghan politics.

The 86-year-old former king has lived in Italy since his ouster from power in 1973. But as a Pashtun and respected elder figure in Afghanistan, Shah has been widely regarded to be a rallying point to draw together different Afghan factions into a popular coalition.

Although Fawzi refused to give any indications of how long the talks would last, he said the delegates agreed to convene a loya jirga possibly by the Afghan New Year, in March 2002.

ABCNEWS' Christel Kucharz in Bonn contributed to this report.