New Afghan President Hamid Karzai was drawing up a cabinet list before an expected announcement of the line-up later today after failing to break an impasse at the grand assembly on forming a parliament.
President Karzai, who was chosen for this position by the traditional Loya Jirga last week, told the assembly he wanted a transparent, accountable and pluralist government to pull the country out of 23 years of war. The new government will rule until elections in 18 months.
The UN-sponsored assembly, which convened on Tuesday last week, is part of an effort to restore peace and stability after 23 years of chaos and war.
While Afghan leaders debated politics, US and allied military teams hunting fighters of the former ruling Taliban movement and their al Qaeda allies found a cache of 30 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, the US military said.
US forces launched an air offensive in Afghanistan in October to root out al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11th attacks in the US, and punish his Taliban protectors.
President Karzai and his six-month interim administration, which includes powerful ethnic minority commanders of the Northern Alliance, took over in December after the Taliban were pushed from Kabul and their southern strongholds.
But in an eagerly awaited speech to some 1,600 delegates late yesterday, President Karzai spoke of the need for a pluralist government but he dodged the two issues that have paralyzed the assembly for days: composition of a legislature and the line-up of his cabinet.