Global Policy Forum

By Colum Lynch and Steven Mufson

U.N. Security Council diplomats yesterday began negotiating the makeup of a multinational peacekeeping force in Afghanistan that would probably be led by a European nation and could include Afghan troops as well as forces from Western and Muslim countries, according to U.S. and U.N. diplomats. The talks took on urgency yesterday after an agreement in Bonn on an interim Afghan government that is supposed to take power Dec. 22 and to allow a multinational force to ensure security in Kabul, the capital.

Because of time pressure, diplomats said, the best candidates to take part in such a force are countries capable of speedy deployment. Britain, Germany and Turkey were discussed as major participants. Italy, Australia, Canada and Bangladesh also are willing to take part, U.S. and U.N. officials said.

The international force, which would assist in the country's reconstruction, eventually could fan out from Kabul to other cities. "We are all working against a deadline of December 22nd, when we hope the security arrangements will not only be agreed on but will be deployed," said a U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Central Command, which is overseeing the war in Afghanistan, has delayed the deployment of international peacekeepers out of concern that they might complicate the military campaign to hunt down leaders of al Qaeda and the Taliban.

But with yesterday's appeal for foreign intervention by the new Afghan leadership, the United States has stepped up planning. "I wouldn't say that we now feel that it's time" for peacekeepers, a U.S. official said. "But we will be ready."

U.N. and Western diplomats said last night there was no agreement on who would lead or finance such a force. And some U.N. diplomats complained that the United States was still dragging its feet. In Ankara, Turkey, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, "There will come a time when we want to pass this off -- whatever military presence there is in Afghanistan -- pass this off to a coalition of the willing [countries contributing peacekeepers]. I do not expect it to be an American-led operation."

But, he added, "for the foreseeable future, our mission is not finished."

The head of the Central Command, Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, "will continue to pursue Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and do what has to be done with the Taliban," Powell said. "As peacekeepers arrive, it will be a function of where General Franks is in his work as how they get integrated in."

Talks are expected to spill into next week on the multinational force, which would require a mandate from the 15-nation U.N. Security Council even though it would not be a formal U.N. "blue helmet" force, diplomats said.

U.S. and European diplomats said elements of the Northern Alliance army, which is obliged to withdraw from Kabul under the Bonn agreement, could work alongside the multinational force. "There is a built-in security force already there," a U.N. diplomat said. "Why not use it?" The United States initially hoped that Turkey would lead the international force. But European officials expressed concern that Turkey might lack the necessary military resources and could be seen by ethnic Pashtuns as too partisan because of its past support for the Northern Alliance. The Europeans suggested that Britain or Germany could lead the mission.

"One thing [the Germans] have going for them is that they aren't Britain or the United States, and they haven't been bombing for the past month," a U.S. official said.

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