Powell Hails Afghan Deal but Warns of Hard Work Ahead

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell heralded the historic agreement Wednesday creating a new broad-based government for war-ravaged Afghanistan, but he warned that the naming of a new interim administration is only the beginning phase of a long process.

Powell said the United States will set up a liaison office in Kabul in the next 10 days, ending a 12-year U.S. diplomatic absence in the Afghan capital and signaling that America believes a turning point has genuinely been reached.

“We’re very pleased at the work done by the Afghan leaders themselves. Now the real work is ahead as we put that interim government in place in Kabul,” he said at a news conference in Turkey, where he held talks with top officials.

The final agreement and the speed with which negotiations concluded were “quite encouraging,” Powell told reporters later en route to Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

The U.S. will soon begin consultations and some “collection-plate nagging” with allies to ensure financial and other support to convert the interim administration into a “viable body,” Powell said.

“A lot has to be done other than people showing up and saying, ‘Hello, we’re the new government,’ ” he said. “There’s no money. We need some money to get these folks started--all of the demands that you would expect a new government to have on it will be placed on this government.”

Although neither the United Nations nor the U.S. has even a rough estimate, Powell said the new administration’s financial needs “won’t be trivial.”

America’s top diplomat said he would open talks on fund-raising today at the NATO meeting. Powell also said cables had been sent to all U.S. embassies asking what belt-tightening they might do to shake loose additional money.

He pledged that Washington will be “actively involved” in getting the new administration established and keeping it going as it works through the transition period.

But the secretary, who is on a 10-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia, cautioned that the political agreement does not mean the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan will wind down any time soon.

There “will come a time when we want to pass this off to a coalition of the willing,” Powell said, a reference to the U.N.-mandated international force outlined in the Afghan agreement. But “for the foreseeable future, our mission is not finished. An American presence will be there until that mission is finished.”

Powell will hold talks today with his 18 counterparts in NATO’s North Atlantic Council about forming the multinational force that will deploy first in Kabul to assist the new administration. He discussed the force with Turkish officials in Ankara on Wednesday.

At a joint news conference, Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said Ankara expects to contribute troops to the force.

“Turkey has an important role there due to her historic presence and friendship with Afghanistan, and we are looking forward to enhancing this cooperation in the framework of international efforts by the United Nations,” he said.

But he said the timing will depend on recommendations from the U.S. Central Command, which is running the war in Afghanistan, and U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi.

Turkey, a Muslim country, is considered by some to be a top contender to lead the force. Powell said Bangladesh, Indonesia and Jordan--also Muslim countries--plus Britain, Germany and France have volunteered to deploy forces.

But a top foreign participant in the Afghan talks said U.N. officials are opposed to Turkish participation in the force. He said Turkish military officers are too close to Uzbek factions of the Northern Alliance--whose militias they have trained--to act as neutral arbiters.

In any case, a central issue to be worked out is exactly what the force will do. For the moment, basic security issues such as patrolling the streets do not appear to be a problem, Powell said.

James Dobbins, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan who played a key behind-the-scenes role in mediating the agreement, will probably become the chief U.S. representative in Kabul, Powell said. America’s sprawling embassy there was closed in 1989.

The building was attacked and partly damaged in a fire set by the Taliban on Sept. 26 in anticipation of U.S. military strikes.

*

Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux in Koenigswinter, Germany, contributed to this report.