U.S. accepts Afghanistan nation building role

UNITED NATIONS -- As rebel forces gained ground against the ruling Taliban, the Bush administration on Monday enlisted the support of seven nations and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to speed efforts to form a new government in Afghanistan. \nThe aim is a broad-based coalition to take charge in Kabul, possibly including Taliban defectors. The United Nations might take interim control of the capital, and Muslim and non-Muslim nations are likely to join with Turkey in providing peacekeepers, U.S. officials said. \nIn a declaration, the United States, Russia and six nations that border Afghanistan pledged "to establish a broad-based Afghan administration on an urgent basis." \nFor the Bush administration, which took office nine months ago dubious of what it scornfully referred to as "nation-building," it marked a turnabout in foreign policy. \nIranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi sat across the table from Secretary of State Colin Powell as they plotted Afghanistan's future. Iran, itself branded a sponsor of terrorism, is a longtime opponent of the Taliban militia. \nKharrazi expressed Tehran's regret over the loss of life in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, which launched the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and the al-Qaida terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden. Powell thanked him. \nLater Monday, a senior U.S. diplomat, James F. Dobbins, planned to fly to Europe and then Central Asia to help fashion a post-Taliban regime in talks with government leaders and heads of Afghan opposition groups. \nIt is a difficult assignment. The Bush administration has backed the northern alliance, which is carrying the fight to the Taliban and is gaining control of areas in the north. But the alliance is dominated by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks, whose entry into Kabul would upset the Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan. \nAs a result, Powell has proposed the northern alliance not drive into the city and that Kabul function as an "open city" for an interim period.