Framework Treaty On Afghanistan Agreed On

The participants in the talks on Afghanistan which are held in Bonn have agreed on the basics of a framework treaty, said Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for the UN special representative for Afghanistan. At the same time, the debate over the candidature of the Afghan interim Prime Minister and Cabinet's rollcall list is going on, he said. The treaty stipulates for establishment of a provisional council for a 6-month term, and a transitional government for a 18-month term. It also envisages that the security of Kabul will be ensured by UN peacekeeping forces. It has become known from diplomatic sources that the UN and the US keep insisting that Khamid Karzai, an authoritative Pushtun leader from the Southern Afghanistan, should become head of the transitional government. Karzai does not participate in the Bonn talks. At the same time, the representatives of ex-monarch Zakhir Shah are promoting the candidature of the 64-year-old ethnic Uzbek Abdul Sattar Sirat who is the main negotiator for his grouping in Bonn.