As a historic new government prepared to take office here today, Afghanistan's capital did its best to spruce up for the event.
In a city with no infrastructure to speak of, that alone was a monumental task, dwarfed only by the political challenges facing Hamid Karzai and his 29-member cabinet.
Convoys of UN vehicles shepherded the new cabinet ministers into the city from Bagram military airport, where many of them arrived in early afternoon.
Throngs of turbaned and bearded aides, ministers and mullahs arrived at the crumbling Intercontinental Hotel. Klieg lights were turned on at several of the nation's dilapidated ministry buildings, and the hotel's management asked plumbers and electricians to work overtime in a near-futile effort to get running water and electricity to all of the hotel's rooms.
Saturday's swearing-in ceremony will be attended by some 2,000 international VIPS, delegations from 20 countries and a selection of UN diplomats and prominent Afghans.
Among those set to speak are the UN representative, Mr Lakshar Brahimi, the outgoing president, Mr Buhraddin Rabbani, Mr Karzai, and an as yet unannounced member of the cabinet. The national anthem will be played on tape as no band was available, and recitations from the Koran will be offered along with prayers. The entire event will be held under tight security, including a contingent of 12 bomb and mine-sniffing dogs, at the Interior Ministry, one of the few intact government buildings.
The ceremony will be broadcast to the nation live on Afghan television, which has only resumed recently as television was banned by the Taliban.
"This could be the first peaceful transfer of power in Afghanistan in decades if not in history," said the US special envoy, Mr James Dobbins.
Mr Dobbins said he had received a letter from President George Bush extending an official invitation to Mr Karzai to visit Washington early next year. He also announced that the US would immediately recognise Mr Karzai's as the official and legitimate government of Afghanistan and would turn over the embassy in Washington DC.
As hopes for peace reigned, however, so did confusion. Many of the ministers had not even spoken with Mr Karzai and had no idea where and when they should appear. In addition, several had no idea of what next week would hold for the new government.
"Will we have offices? Do we have staff? Nobody knows much of anything," said Dr Sima Simar, who as vice-chairman is the highest-ranking woman in the government. Dr Samar arrived in Kabul after a tour of Canada and a visit to Washington, where she met the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, and others in the US State Department.
"I asked for a women ambassador to be appointed," said Dr Samar. "I also pushed for money for reconstruction. She said she also joked with Mr Powell about allegations in many newspapers that the new government is a puppet of American interests and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Mr Karzai, among others in the interim government selected in Bonn, have strong US ties and were the favourites of the US.
"I said, 'So we are a CIA-sponsored government. OK, but you have to send us money to rebuild our country," she said.
In a measure aimed at tightening security, the government ordered guns off the streets of the capital, although few people seemed to take any notice yesterday morning as numerous armed men strolled in the winter sunshine.
"People who are not from the authorised security forces should not carry their weapons on the streets," said the Interior Ministry order that was read out on television late on Thursday. "They should hand over their arms to the police," it said.
But in the morning, men with guns or rocket-launchers slung casually over their shoulders dawdled on street corners or walked nonchalantly through the markets, and it was not clear if many were fighters of the Northern Alliance or civilians.
The only people authorised to carry guns on the streets would be mujahideen - holy warriors - assigned to guard the city, as well as Interior Ministry police. And in a sign that Afghans of all ethnic groups are looking to the new government to bring peace, the ethnic Uzbek warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, said he wanted to attend the swearing in.
The burly warlord, back in power in his northern power base of Mazar-e-Sharif and who is part of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, had said this month he would boycott the new administration because it was not balanced.
He later relented. "I am trying to come myself to Kabul," he told Reuters by satellite phone from his base at the town of Shiberghan to the west of Mazar-e-Sharif. "I am coming to preclude rumours that say that Dostum is unhappy with this new government."
Mr Dostum said he would take the opportunity of his visit to Kabul to raise the issue of cabinet posts with the incoming Interior Minister, Mr Yunis Qanuni, a senior Northern Alliance member.
Guarding the new government to and from the ceremony at the presidential palace will be the Royal Marines, who emerged late on Thursday from a Hercules transport with backpacks, assault rifles and shoulder-fired light anti-tank weapons.
"We are not here to take over the country," said Maj Guy Richardson, the British forces spokesman. "We are not here to run things. Far from it. We are here to assist."
Across Afghanistan US-led forces are questioning about 7,000 prisoners to determine the level of their involvement in the Taliban and bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, said a coalition spokesman.
Prisoners were being screened to ascertain whether they weremerely sympathisers and "late-comers" to the Taliban and al-Qaeda or hardliners and "people with blood on their hands," he said.
"There are various categories of degrees of guilt and involvement in activities that deserve punishment," he added.
The Pentagon said on Thursday US military forces were holding 23 captured al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters for interrogation in Afghanistan and on a navy ship in the Indian Ocean.
However, Mullah Omar and other top Taliban leaders are still safely hidden from US and Afghan forces hunting them down, according to Mullah Abdul Shakour, minister for communications and reconstruction in the Taliban regime.
"We are not worried about the safety of our leader," Mullah Shakour told Reuters in the border town of Spin Boldak in southern Afghanistan. "All our senior leaders are safe."
He warned Afghanistan's neighbours not to extradite any Taliban official to the United States.