Musharraf, Brahimi agree on Afghan issue

UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, currently in Pakistan for talks on a proposed broad-based government for Afghanistan, met President General Musharraf here yesterday and the two agreed on the need to accelerate the political process, officials said.

Brahimi agreed with Pakistan's military ruler that any future Afghan government must not allow its territory to become a base for hostile groups.

He met Musharraf for an hour for what his spokesman Eric Falt termed an "in-depth discussion" on the conflict in Afghanistan.

"One of the key aspects at present is that we don't see a formula emerging yet where those who are holding the gun will stop holding the rest of the country hostage," Brahimi was quoted by his spokesman as saying.

Musharraf and Brahimi, who has termed the September 11 attacks on the United States a "wake-up call" about the danger of allowing states such as Afghanistan to collapse, agreed on the basic principles of a future Afghan government, Falt said.

A foreign office spokesman said Musharraf emphasised during the meeting that a future multi-ethnic government taking into account Afghanistan's demographic composition must be formed by Afghans themselves.

The president also underlined the need for a massive rehabilitation and reconstruction drive in Afghanistan after the ongoing war comes to an end and a new broad-based government assumes control in Afghanistan, the spokesman told reporters.

Brahimi and the Pakistani leader agreed that the political process aimed at shaping a new political setup for Afghanistan should be speeded up and plans should laid out for post-war rehabilitation, he said.

The two men also agreed that Afghanistan should not be allowed to become a playground for militants such as the Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"The future government will maintain friendly relations with all its neighbours and will not allow its territory to be used for hostile acts against its neighbours or anyone else," Falt quoted the two men as agreeing.

The envoy wants to meet the Taliban Ambassdor to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, to discuss the Afghan crisis, the ongoing political process and prospects for participation of people from the Taliban camp in a future broad-based coalition, UN sources said.

Although Brahimi has emphasised that Afghans must decide the form of their next government, his meetings with Pakistanis and talks in the next few days in Iran acknowledge the key role Afghanistan's neighbours must play.

Brahimi plans to go to Tehran, which backs the northern alliance, tomorrow or Saturday, with Francesc Vendrell, the Islamabad-based UN assistant secretary-general who has been trying to broker a peace deal in Afghani