Radical Afghan Leader Offers Compromise : Rebels: Hekmatyar drops demand for an immediate Islamic state. He proposes an interim ruling council.

Radical guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar offered moderate rebels a compromise Thursday, saying he would accept an interim rebel council that would rule until elections within a year.

Hekmatyar, who previously had demanded the immediate establishment of a strict Islamic state, also proposed that neither he nor his bitter rival, Ahmed Shah Masoud, serve on the council.

But even as he made the offer, unarmed rebels opposed to Hekmatyar openly moved into and around the Afghan capital for the first time since the civil war began 13 years ago.

It was a sign of the growing cooperation between moderate rebels and government forces a week after President Najibullah was ousted and a power struggle began among rebel groups.

Hekmatyar has threatened to attack Kabul unless the government surrenders to him. His forces are believed strong enough to block an accord for a rebel-led government that includes Masoud, but not powerful enough to seize power alone.

Moderate guerrillas are trying to stitch together an Islamic council that could govern until elections in this mountainous country. The crumbling government has agreed to surrender power to either a moderate rebel coalition or a neutral interim government, but not to any single guerrilla group.

At a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, U.N. negotiator Benon Sevan pleaded for rebel leaders to set aside differences and form a government to take power in Kabul.

“What they agree to in the morning, they reject in the evening as if it were signed in invisible ink,” said Sevan. “Time is running out fast. Afghanistan cannot afford a new war.”

More than a million people have been killed and 5 million have left the country because of fighting between a succession of Marxist governments and Muslim groups formerly armed and financed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Hekmatyar, leader of the radical Hizb-i-Islami guerrilla faction, has rejected any role in a council that includes Najibullah’s Watan Party or Masoud, a moderate who is the country’s most powerful rebel commander.

Trying to counter the moderates, Hekmatyar proposed a military government composed of rebel commanders who have been based around Kabul during the war. That would exclude both Hekmatyar and Masoud, whose forces are based farther away.

He said the revolutionary council would take over until nationwide elections could be held in a year.

The proposal was made during a meeting with a provisional vice president, Mohammed Rafei, at Hekmatyar’s stronghold in Logar province south of Kabul. It was the first publicly acknowledged meeting between the two.

The Kabul government said Hekmatyar’s proposal was unacceptable.

However, Rafei told reporters: “This is a proposal. It needs to be discussed and reviewed by various commanders and various leaders.”

There was no immediate reaction from Masoud.

Hekmatyar’s suggestion came as thousands of Masoud’s fighters moved closer to this capital of 1.5 million people. Sources in Masoud’s organization said the rebels now control territory up to the northern and northwestern city limits.

The rebels, known as moujahedeen or Islamic holy warriors, also were seen deep inside the city, where bazaars were bustling again after nearly a week of tension. At least two of Masoud’s fighters were seen in the city money market with bumper stickers on their jeeps reading: “I Love Jihad (holy war).”

Also Thursday, the International Red Cross evacuated nearly half its 75-member contingent after a field nurse from Iceland was killed by a Muslim fanatic.

“I have to take into consideration the security of my staff,” said Lauren Corbaz, head of the Red Cross in Afghanistan. “It is a temporary closure.”

On Wednesday, a Hekmatyar loyalist stuck the barrel of his rifle through the window of a Red Cross vehicle evacuating war casualties outside Kabul and killed 39-year-old Jon Karlsson.

As he fired, witnesses said the gunman shouted: “Death to all kafirs (non-Muslims)!”