Delegations representing Afghanistan's rival factions began arriving in Germany yesterday for talks scheduled to begin tomorrow on establishing a transitional administration in Kabul.
Despite senior Northern Alliance leaders describing the talks as "symbolic" and staying away, UN officials say they are optimistic that the week-long talks can lay the foundations for a broad power-sharing body.
"Speed is of the essence in Afghanistan at the moment with things being so fluid," said Mr Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for the special representative of the UN secretary-general for Afghanistan, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, who will chair the talks.
"If we come away with a transitional administration for Kabul we will be happy. What we expect for now is for people to set aside their differences and come to the table with an open mind," said Mr Fawzi.
But the UN knows that its main task is to overcome hostilities which go back 22 years. And with war in Afghanistan leaving many groups unable or unwilling to send senior negotiators to Germany, it may well complicate the discussions ahead.
Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani, the ousted Afghan president who leads the Northern Alliance, has no plans to attend, nor does Gen Mohammed Fahim, his military chief, or Mr Abdullah Abdullah, the foreign minister.
Mr Abdullah said yesterday that the talks in Bonn were "an important first step on the way to sustained political order in Afghanistan". However he reiterated the Northern Alliance position that the talks have just a "symbolic value" and were "just a first step".
"The final decision about the future government has to take place in Afghanistan. There will be a lot of meetings until then," said Mr Abdullah in a German newspaper interview.
The Northern Alliance, who took control of Kabul on November 13th after driving Taliban forces from the city, is dominated by minority Tajiks and Uzbeks. They only agreed to send representatives to the talks after receiving assurances from the UN that a later leg of the talks will take place in Kabul.
The Northern Alliance will be joined at the talks by three other factions, including the "Rome group" led by supporters of exiled King Zahir Shah (87), who now lives in Rome.
His supporters have expressed concern at how quickly the Northern Alliance has filled the vacuum in Kabul left by the departing Taliban with its own supporters.
Mr Abdullah, however, defended the current Northern Alliance authority as "necessary to prevent anarchy" in the country".
He denied that the Northern Alliance would exclude minorities in the country. "There are no majorities or minorities here [in Afghanistan]. The entire country is made up of minorities.
"For that reason it's important that all minority groups are members of a transition administration," he said, warning that it would "take a few years to have free elections" to restore normality in Afghanistan.
The UN shifted the talks from Berlin to Bonn last week and moved the opening session until tomorrow to accommodate Northern Alliance delegates. Close on 1,000 journalists are expected to descend on the former West German capital ahead of the talks.
