Global Policy Forum

By Rory McCarthy

Intense negotiations started yesterday in two major Afghan cities in an attempt to forestall a descent into bloody conflict between rival warlords.

Tribal leaders and United Nations mediators met in Gardez, eastern Afghanistan, to halt a dispute about the choice of governor, after days of clashes in which 61 fighters were killed. Similar talks began hundreds of miles further north in Mazar-i-Sharif.

The disputes are the biggest setback to Hamid Karzai's interim administration since he took power a month ago. Many in the country fear that it is sliding back into the brutal factional rivalries which marked the four years before the Taliban seized power.

In Gardez, the scene of the most serious of the recent clashes, Mr Karzai's nominated governor, Haji Bacha Khan Zadran, and his men have been fighting troops loyal to Haji Saifullah, a tribal council chief, using artillery, mortars and heavy machine guns.

Mr Zadran was forced out of Gardez on Friday and took up a position 75 miles south, threatening to launch a counter-attack. "I am officially governor. I am ready for more fighting," he said yesterday as he stood surrounded by troops at a fort outside the town. "You can see my fighters."

American aircraft have dropped leaflets appealing for peace, and B52 bombers circled ominously over Gardez yesterday. A tribal delegation sent from Kabul met both sides in the dispute yesterday but gained little ground. "We told them we do not accept Khan Zadran as the governor of Gardez," Mr Saifullah said after the meeting.

Last month he accused Mr Zadran of misleading the US into bombing a convoy of tribal elders from the area who were travelling to Kabul for the inauguration of the new government. More than 60 people died. Washington said it was targeting Taliban and al-Qaida forces.

After several hours of talks with both sides, government team member Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said last night he was optimistic. "The result of the discussions with them is positive and they both have said they don't want to fight," he told Reuters.

Near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif yesterday, commanders from two rival factions met to ease tensions. About 50 people have died in the past month as soldiers loyal to Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord, and Atta Mohammed, a Tajik commander, have clashed outside the city.

US commandos accidentally killed 21 soldiers loyal to Hamid Karzai in a gun battle at a high school in Uruzgan province two weeks ago, Time magazine claims today. The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, admitted last week that US troops might have been tricked by shifting Afghan loyalties into attacking the school, believing it was a Taliban base.

· A second Briton is being held by the Americans in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, on suspicion of fighting with Taliban or al-Qaida troops, the Foreign Office confirmed yesterday, writes Vikram Dodd. Jamal Udeen, 35, from Manchester is being held with Ruhal Ahmed, 20, from Tipton. Two others from Tipton are among three Britons held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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