The UN special envoy to Afghanistan, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, made his first visit to the capital city of Kabul yesterday. He went to begin talks with Afghan leaders on a smooth transition of power to a post-Taliban interim government.
Mr Brahimi began his 24-hour visit with a courtesy call to Dr Abdullah Abdullah, the North Alliance foreign minister. He then met with former president Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani and a group of prominent local leaders.
"I have had a series of informative meetings," Mr Brahimi told a news conference. "I came here just to touch base with local authorities and to make sure everything is in place."
He is preparing for the handover of power to the interim government, which will happen on December 22nd.
Mr Brahimi also met Northern Alliance defence minister Gen Mohammad Fahim, who earlier set conditions to the deployment of any international peacekeeping force. He told reporters in Kabul that any peacekeeping force should be limited to 1,000 troops and confine itself to guarding the interim government.
"The number is sufficient to ensure security during meetings of the interim government and meetings about the formation of a loya jirga [grand assembly] and this is all that is needed," he said.
Gen Fahim said nothing in the Bonn power-sharing deal required the Northern Alliance to withdraw its security forces from Kabul. That understanding conflicts with other interpretations of the Bonn agreement.
Asked if he discussed the impasse with Gen Fahim, Mr Brahimi said: "I did not discuss the withdrawal of forces from Kabul," adding that he considered it an operational issue beyond his brief.
A planned meeting with Mr Hamid Karzai, the head of the interim government, did not happen because Mr Karzai was unable to leave Kandhar, where he remained brokering peace talks between rival warlords.
But Mr Brahimi's mission got a boost when an envoy from ethnic Uzbek northern warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who has criticised the power-sharing deal, sent a letter to Mr Brahimi saying he would nonetheless back the accord reached in Bonn.