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Afghan Groups Sign Power-Sharing Accord
BONN, Dec. 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Four rival Afghan groups signed Wednesday a historic power-sharing agreement to set up an interim government in Afghanistan.
The deal, hammered out in nine days of exhausting talks near Bonn, provides for a 29-member interim cabinet headed by pro-royalist Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, who will take office on 22 December, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The leaders of the four delegations and U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi signed the accord.
Contacted by the BBC, Karzai said he had not been officially told he is to be his country's new leader, but was glad to be entrusted with the task. He said his main priority was to restore absolute peace and security, and to bring unity to Afghanistan.
United Nations spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said the delegates had all accepted the names of the 30 people put forward, but 11 of those named still needed to be contacted in order to confirm that they would take up their appointments.
The Northern Alliance, which has controlled Kabul since the Taliban fled last month, gets to keep the three most powerful ministries - interior, defense and foreign affairs.
The alliance, chiefly made up of minority Uzbeks and Tajiks, had been expected to be pressed into surrendering at least one portfolio to the majority Pashtun tribes, BBC's online service reported.
Two women are among those named, including Sima Samar, who will be one of the five deputies to Karzai. The U.N. has said the new authority must guarantee freedom of expression and women's rights.
A total of 150 names were put forward for the posts, which the U.N. said had to be divided up to represent the country's ethnic balance.
The factions agreed to the mechanism Monday as part of a U.N.-brokered blueprint for rebuilding Afghanistan's political system. The country is in shambles following two decades of upheaval, which have seen Soviet occupation, civil war and Taliban rule.
The text of the U.N. proposals has not been released, but earlier drafts included plans to set up a special commission to convene a Loya Jirga, or traditional grand assembly.
The former king, Zahir Shah, is expected to participate in the assembly, though it is not clear if he will open it, as some of his supporters have called for.
The interim administration will rule for six months until this assembly is convened.
The assembly will then elect a transitional government to rule for about two years until a constitution is drawn up and elections are held.
Another measure foreseen under the U.N. blueprint is the creation of a supreme court, which correspondents say may be aimed at creating a role for Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani. His opposition to some key decisions has delayed a final agreement.
Rabbani, who never wanted talks on Afghanistan's political future to take place outside Kabul, had argued that the composition of the cabinet should be decided later in the Afghan capital.
The U.N. text also proposes a multinational peacekeeping force for Kabul, but does not stipulate the force's size, mandate or duration. The text also says peacekeepers would be deployed at the Afghan administration's request.
The conclusion of the talks is a major step for a gathering of major international aid donors, also set for Wednesday in Berlin.
Large donor countries kept up pressure on the Afghan factions by warning them that billions of dollars in reconstruction aid depended on a deal being reached.
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