Alliance chief grumbles over new Cabinet

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The head of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance affirmed Wednesday that he will surrender power to an interim government on schedule next week, but he dismissed the U.N.-brokered agreement to set it up as "an offense" to Afghans orchestrated by foreign powers.

Former President Buhanauddin Rabbani's comments, his first on the deal since it was worked out last week in Germany, were a sign of continuing political and ethnic discord.

Instead of a broad-based government that was set out as the objective, Rabbani said, the negotiators in Bonn came up with a Cabinet that slighted the holy warriors who have fought for Afghanistan's freedom for the last 22 years.

"Any government that is going to be formed outside the country will provoke feelings among people," he said at the presidential palace. The decision to establish such a government "is an offense to the leaders and the people of Afghanistan."

Under the Bonn accord, Rabbani's Northern Alliance will turn over Kabul and the reins of government on Dec. 22 to a 30-member Cabinet led by Hamid Karzai, who was reported to have arrived in the capital Wednesday night.

The agreement also envisioned a U.N.-authorized multinational peacekeeping force to assist with security in Kabul. However, officials remained divided over the details, especially its size. Mohammed Fahim, a Northern Alliance leader who will be defense minister in the new regime, said this week that the force should include no more than 1,000 troops; foreign leaders have talked about a larger contingent.

Rabbani reiterated his opposition to foreign peacekeepers, but appeared to accept their inevitability. "We agree that the security of Afghanistan should be led by Afghans," he said. "If there is an international security force, it should come for a limited time and a limited number."

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