Afghanistan's new leader Mr Hamid Karzai headed home today vowing to end the rule of the gun and Kabul awaited the arrival of foreign troops intended to help keep his fragile interim government in power.
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Mr Hamid Karzai at a news conference in Rome today. Photography: Reuters
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After weeks of confusion and disputes over the size and role of the UN-mandated force, Mr Karzai's designated defense minister Mr Mohammad Fahim said it would number 1,000 soldiers, with more providing logistical support, and the first would arrive on Friday.
The international troops prepared to move into the capital as Afghan fighters and US and British special forces continued to hunt down the routed fighters of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in the eastern mountains along the border with Pakistan.
The US admitted it had no idea where bin Laden was, saying he might be already dead at the bottom of a cave hideout or have fled the country.
Anti-Taliban fighters and US special forces have been scouring the caves and tunnels of Tora Bora finding videotapes and documents - but no sign of bin Laden himself.
Deputy Defense Secretary Mr Paul Wolfowitz said bin Laden could be on the run inside Afghanistan, have crossed the border, or have already been killed in the blitz of his mountain hideouts waged by US bombers. But he warned that any country which knowingly harbored bin Laden would be "out of their minds."
"They've seen what happened to the Taliban," he said.
The Afghan Northern Alliance leaders now controlling Kabul have been lukewarm at best about the deployment of foreign troops in the city, and disputes over the force still divide Western governments.
Differences emerged today between Germany and Britain over the structure of the international force, Germany insisting it should not come under US command.
Women's minister in Karzai's interim government Ms Sima Samar said basic human rights for Afghan women should include:
"Access to education, freedom of speech, freedom of thinking, freedom of working outside the house, freedom of choosing the way they are wearing the clothes, freedom of choosing their profession, access to health care."
Diplomatic and military sources in the Afghan capital said a vanguard of about 100 British Royal Marines were expected.