Afghanistan's interim leader Mr Hamid Karzai has outlined his plans for restoring order to country, just hours after the new government ordered armed men off streets and soldiers back to barracks in battered Kabul.
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Mr Hamid Karzai: "Let us join together and make a national army"
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In an address on television - a medium banned by his Taliban predecessors -Mr Karzai laid out a brief blueprint for restoring economic and political stability.
"Let us join together and make a national army," he said.
Mr Karzai said he would control inflation, nurture manufacture of Afghan products, aim to create jobs and foster a market economy.
The interim administration would not restrict the media if they did not damage national interests, he said.
The government also ordered all armed men except police and official security personnel to leave Kabul and return to their military bases.
Thousands of loosely organized but heavily armed Northern Alliance troops have occupied Kabul since the Taliban fled the city on November 13.
Meanwhile, confusion surrounds the fate of three ministers from the vanquished Taliban militia who were reported to have surrendered but then allowed to go free under surveillance.
More al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners filled US detention camps in Afghanistan while US jets prowled the skies to bomb possible hideouts of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Osama bin Laden