Multinational Peace Force Likely Before Saturday: Karzai

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 18, 2001

Multinational Peace Force Likely Before Saturday: Karzai

amid Karzai, the designated head of the interim government that will take power in Afghanistan on Saturday, believes an international peace force is likely to arrive in Kabul before his government takes office.

He was asked by reporters on his arrival in Rome late on Monday (local time) for talks on Tuesday with the country's former king if he expected peacekeeping troops to arrive in the Afghan capital before Saturday, December 22, the day he is due to take power.

The details of the force's make-up have yet to be announced but Prime Minister Tony Blair said in parliament earlier on Monday that Britain would contribute up to 1,500 troops to the peace force and was prepared in principle to lead it.

The force, to guard the peace in the capital city itself and possibly other locations, was a key part of the peace deal signed in Germany this month which paved the way for the new post-Taleban interim administration to take power.

But that agreement left the details out.

Since then, the Northern Alliance, which now controls the capital, has said it wants to see no more than 1,000 foreign troops, and with a tightly defined mandate, mainly to guard government meetings.

But countries expected to contribute troops have discussed a much larger force with a more robust mission.

Mr Karzai, who is expected to stay in Rome perhaps for two days, is due to meet the former king of Afghanistan Mohammad Zahir Shah early on Tuesday evening.

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