The four Afghan delegations meeting near Bonn were last night studying a draft agreement on interim authority to assume immediate control in Kabul.
The seven-page UN draft document discards the idea of a 200-member parliament and reverts to the original idea of a small interim cabinet to run Afghanistan.
Members of the four groups are now preparing lists of candidates for this cabinet, and a supreme court. A third group will organise a loya jirga, a meeting of ethnic groups to be convened early next year to elect a provisional government and parliament.
"I have to stress that what the groups are studying today is only a draft document. I am sure they will be making many notes in the margins," said Mr Ahmed Fawzi, the UN spokesman at the talks, which enter their seventh day today.
The draft document does not go into details about the size, nature or duration of deployment of an international security force for Afghanistan.
"Until such a time as the Afghans can build an army and police force the multinational force can assist if requested to do so by the Afghans," said Mr Fahzi.
"But we are not going to jump on a plane and parachute people in," he added.
The two largest delegations - the Northern Alliance and representatives of Afghanistan's former King Zahir Shah - put forward the name of former justice minister Abdul Sattar Sirat to serve as the country's new premier.
Sirat, an ethnic Uzbek and aide to Zahir Shah, has been active in recent years promoting efforts to have the 87-year-old ex-monarch return to help rebuild the country. Until Saturday it was believed Zahir Shah, would head the interim parliamentary-style council. But with the parliament idea now discarded, it is believed the former king will play a symbolic role at the opening of the loya jirga, described yesterday as a "1,500 member council of elders".
This meeting, to take place in either March or April, will appoint a government and parliament with a two-year mandate to draft a constitution and work towards elections.
The draft agreement specifies that the Supreme Court judges to be chosen by the delegates in Bonn will have no power to grant amnesty for war crimes or human rights violations in Afghanistan.
Observers at the talks say part of the delay in reaching agreement has been caused by the Northern Alliance leader in Kabul, President Rabbani.
He is believed to have changed his mind more than once about whether he favours a cabinet-style administration or a larger parliamentary-style council.
The UN declined to comment directly on the matter, saying that "Mr Rabbani's role in any interim administration has not yet been decided". The UN hopes to produce a final agreement today or tomorrow.
