Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani, still officially the president of Afghanistan, has said he would relinquish any claims to power if next week's talks in Germany succeed in naming a transitional leader.
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Burhanuddin Rabbani
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In an interview published in Britain’s
Daily Telegraph
today, Mr Rabbani, who was president from 1993 until 1996 when the Taliban threw him out, said he hoped future negotiations on the future of Afghanistan would be held in the country itself.
"I will accept the decision of the (Bonn) meeting. I have no personal ambitions," he told the newspaper from Kabul.
"This meeting is only the first step and no doubt it is very useful and auspicious, but we hope that this will be the last gathering outside the country."
Mr Rabbani, the nominal head of the Northern Alliance fighting the Taliban for control of Afghanistan, also called for better relations with neighboring Pakistan.
"We want a new page to be turned. My message to General Pervez Musharraf is that we should forget the bitter memories of the past and start a new friendship," he said.
The relationship should be "based on mutual respect, non-interference and territorial independence," he added.