PRESS BRIEFING BY SPOKESMAN FOR SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR AFGHANISTAN

The emergence of a formula to create a broad-based transitional administration in Afghanistan would be the measure of success for next week's intra-Afghan talks in Bonn, Germany, the Spokesman for Lakhdar Brahimi, Special Envoy for Afghanistan, said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Responding to correspondents' questions, Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said such a formula would necessarily include all groups in Afghanistan, including women.  It would be implemented in a series of phases, including a provisional council.  Any transitional government appointed may rule the country for two years.

Asked if any agreement was expected, Mr. Fawzi cautioned that the United Nations could not be totally confident as there were differences to be reconciled among the various Afghan parties.  Getting them together at all had been quite an achievement.  The talks, beginning on Tuesday at Petersburg, near Bonn, would be the first step on a long road to establishing good governance in Afghanistan.

Replying to another question, he said the bulk of the United Nations delegation would arrive on Saturday.  Some Afghan parties would start arriving on Saturday, most of them on Sunday and the rest on Monday.  The United Nations hoped to start bilateral consultations on Monday.

Asked who, besides the Afghan factions, would attend the talks, Mr. Fawzi stressed that Mr. Brahimi was organizing a conference on Afghanistan for the Afghans.  However, interested countries would be sending delegates.  The United Nations would be facilitating the conference and dealing with the Afghan parties.  The Organization was not imposing anything on the Afghan parties and they were choosing their own delegates for the talks.

Another journalist asked if the United Nations could be optimistic about the chances of a lasting transitional administration that excluded the Taliban.

Mr. Fawzi replied that while it was unrealistic to expect Taliban representation at this stage, it was possible that moderate elements of the Taliban could be included in the future.  However, the Pashtun, Afghanistan's main ethnic group and base of the Taliban, would be represented at the conference, as would all the Afghan factions.

He said the Afghan participants in the conference would include the four parties from the Northern Alliance as well as Afghan representatives from Rome, Cyprus and Peshawar, who would be discussing the formation of a broad-based, multi-ethnic government.

Responding to another question, Mr. Fawzi said there would be no final list of participants until Sunday.

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