With the singing of the US national anthem, and in the presence of US soldiers and Afghan dignitaries, the US embassy reopened in Kabul yesterday for the first time in 12 years.
Meanwhile, the US special representative to Afghanistan, Mr James Dobbins, on hand as US marines raised the Stars and Stripes above the debris-strewn embassy, said the first peacekeepers would arrive by Saturday.
"We do intend to play an important role and that role will be welcomed by the Afghans," said Mr Dobbins.
He stressed that he had met the former president, Mr Buhraddin Rabbani, and incoming President, Mr Hamid Karzai, and both had expressed a desire for US support.
He said the US "has learned from its mistakes in Somalia and Haiti" and that it would not abandon Afghanistan even if Osama bin Laden was captured.
"We have enlightened self-interest in helping Afghanistan in its reconstruction," he said, adding that the international community had a responsibility in preventing countries such as this from becoming "international black-holes for breeding grounds for terrorism".
As negotiations proceed on the country's post-Taliban future, the UN wants a peacekeeping force in place by Saturday when an Afghan interim government takes power.
The size of the force could prove contentious, however.
Afghanistan's interim Defence Minister, Mr Mohammad Fahim, has insisted the force should not exceed 1,000, while the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, estimated on Sunday the force would need 3,000 to 5,000 troops.
"I think the number for Kabul is not going to be a very large number," Mr Dobbins said.
"It's a question of psychology, it's a question of symbolism, it's a question of demonstrating that Kabul does not belong to a single faction . . . It's a question of making people feel that the current tranquillity will last."
Meanwhile, in the Tora Bora region, Afghan forces are searching Afghanistan's eastern highlands for bin Laden and his defeated al-Qaeda fighters.
US bombing continued overnight despite the seizure of bin Laden's main bases in the area, injuring several allied Afghan fighters.
However, there was no sign of the Saudi-born dissident alleged to be the mastermind of the September 11th attacks.