Afghan rivals are making a final push towards forming a post-Taliban government as the delegation of the dominant Northern Alliance said it would bypass hesitating leader Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani to get a deal.
Mr Yunis Qanuni, delegation head for the Alliance which now controls most of Afghanistan, said he would seek popular support for an agreement if Mr Rabbani did not provide a list of names to be appointed to interim power-sharing bodies.
With billions of dollars in foreign aid at stake and the United Nations pushing for a conclusion after five days of haggling, the pressure is on for an agreement on candidates for an interim cabinet and parliament.
The Northern Alliance has agreed in principle to share power with three exile factions, including royalists who want former king Zahir Shah to return as a unifying head of state.
Yesterday, it seemed a rift inside the Alliance might paralyse the talks. Mr Rabbani, who the United Nations still recognises as president of Afghanistan, made statements at odds with the emerging deal his delegation has been forging in Bonn.
The Alliance has already made important concessions that could pave the way for a powersharing deal, including agreeing to international peacekeepers in the country.
Fatigued UN special envoy Mr Lakhdar Brahimi lobbied Mr Rabbani by telephone from Bonn to produce a list of proposed candidates for interim leadership in Kabul.
Mr Qanuni, also Alliance interior minister and part of a new generation of Afghan politicians desperate for peace and democracy after 23 years of war, signalled movement on Saturday.
He hinted that the Alliance, a coalition of Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and other ethnic minorities that controls most of the country, could go around Mr Rabbani, who has resisted the talks in Bonn that are likely to sideline him, if he did not fax a list.
Meanwhile, US jets continued bombing Kandahar, the last city still under Taliban control.
US Vice President Mr Dick Cheney said Osama bin Laden was thought to be hiding in caves more than 1,000 feet deep in eastern Afghanistan.
Anti-Taliban forces moved closer to Kandahar's ancient city walls, raising the spectre of bloody street battles with thousands of Taliban troops ordered by their spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to fight to their last breath.
US forces paved their way, launching what one tribal commander said were some of the heaviest air raids of the conflict.
Anti-Taliban forces were trying to negotiate the surrender of Kandahar, but US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld said any deal would not include safe passage for Mullah Omar, who is believed to be among those holed up in the besieged city.
"I think it is likely Omar is a dead-ender," he said.