A stand-off between rival anti-Taliban commanders in Kandahar has been resolved peacefully, Afghanistan's new interim leader Hamid Karzai announced this evening.
The Pashtun chief said that he had brokered successful talks on this morning in Kandahar between Mullah Naqibullah, to whom the Taliban surrendered the city, and Gul Agha, a former governor.
"It was agreed that Gul Agha will be in charge of security and the administration of Kandahar. He will continue his mandate until the nomination of a real administration in Afghanistan," added Karzai, speaking by telephone.
Karzai, the head of a UN-endorsed interim government due to take control of Afghanistan later this month, said that Naqibullah had "himself suggested", given his own age, that Agha take over control of the former Taliban bastion.
"He (Naqibullah) will obey him and help him if there is a need," he added.
The meeting, gathering local elders, commanders and other influential figures in the region, took place at the former residence of the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar.
Karzai came to the city to convene a meeting to find a solution to the standoff, and prevent a clash between fighters loyal to Naqibullah and Agha.
Residents in Kandahar reported that there had been looting and sporadic shooting as the rival forces took control.
Karzai said that after the resolution of the dispute, his priority was to travel to Kabul in preparation for taking up his post of interim prime minister on December 22.
Meanwhile, as American and anti-Taliban Afghan forces combed the country for Osama bin Laden, the Anti-Taliban warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum boosted hopes for stability by telling US officials he would co-operate with Kabul's new interim government.
Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek and part of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, dominates most of northern Afghanistan and had said several days ago he would boycott the new administration because it was not balanced.
Dostum said he is willing to cooperate with the interim administration. We heard yesterday.
"We talked to people of his faction", an American official told reporters travelling with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Powell is on a tour of countries in the US-led coalition to fight international terrorism.
The new 30-member interim Afghan authority, agreed after nine days of tough negotiations in Bonn, was fraying at the edges just after its creation on Thursday, with some members of the Northern Alliance expressing unhappiness over its make-up.
Dostum said his mostly Uzbek Junbish-i-Milli faction is not fairly represented in the new Afghan administration.
Ethnic Pashtun spiritual leader Sayed Ahmad Gailani also called the Bonn accord unjust.
The Uzbek warlord said it was a humiliation that he had demanded the foreign ministry for his faction, but instead was given the agriculture, mining and industry portfolios.
He added that the reason for the boycott was not that the Uzbeks had been denied key posts, but that his party should be better represented because it played a crucial role in ousting the former ruling Taliban regime from northern Afghanistan.
The interior minister of the new administration, Yunis Qanuni, said on Friday that differences within the Northern Alliance over the new cabinet were minor and would be ironed out. He said Dostum remained part of the Northern Alliance.
The deal which emerged in Bonn created an interim administration in which the militarily dominant Northern Alliance will share power with former exile groups. It is due to take office in the Afghan capital Kabul on December 22nd.
AFP, REUTERS