HIGHLIGHTSDifferences Between Northern Alliance & King's Group Cast Shadow Over Key Stage in Country's Transition to Stability||Pashtun Feel Sidelined||Warning of a Security Threat from Disaffected Minority of Islamists|| STORY: Political bickering has delayed for five hours the start on Monday of Afghanistan's grand assembly of tribal elders, or Loya Jirga, which is to pick a government to rule the country until general elections in two years time.

Factional wrangling, confusion and fears of violence have cast a shadow over a gathering the United Nations views as a key stage in the country's transition from 23 years of poverty and conflict to a future of peace and stability.

"Because of last-minute consultations between the Northern Alliance and the former king's group, the Loya Jirga has been delayed for some hours," an Afghan official told Reuters.

"Northern Alliance officials are keen to discuss the issue and they have some differences of opinion. And the case is the same with the former king's people," the official said.

The Northern Alliance, which played a key role in defeating the fundamentalist Taliban, wants to keep key posts in the new government and supports interim ruler Hamid Karzai as leader of the new administration.

But some supporters of the former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, say there will be no stability in the shattered country without Zahir Shah in charge, the official said.

The assembly had been due to start at 10 a.m. (0530 GMT) but would now start at 3 p.m.

PASHTUN FEEL SIDELINED

The grand assembly is expected to fine-tune imperfect power-sharing arrangements agreed late last year in Bonn while the Taliban still clung to their southern stronghold of Kandahar.

Yet the two-stage Loya Jirga election process, while involving thousands of ordinary Afghans, has not been without its own flaws.

According to complaints lodged with the Loya Jirga Commission, some local militia commanders have used threats or bribery to ensure their representatives are chosen.

Eight people have been killed in the delegate selection process, even though the Commission says there is evidence of political motivation in only one of the murders.

Despite a clause that excludes anyone involved "in the eyes of the people" in the killing of innocents, Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum has been elected as a delegate.

Ismail Khan, governor of the western Herat province, is also expected to win a place.

In Kabul recently, Khan, Kandahar governor Gul Agha, former king Zahir Shah and a number of cabinet ministers from the interim administration of Hamid Karzai basically decided what they wanted the Loya Jirga to do was to reappoint Karzai.

They want to maintain the current balance of power between the ethnic Uzbek and Tajik-led Northern Alliance, which holds the key ministries of defense, the interior and foreign affairs, and the Pashtuns of the south, who include Karzai.

But political analysts say any fait accompli is unlikely to satisfy the ethnic Hazaras or even most Pashtuns, who feel they do not have their rightful clout.

MILITANT WARNING

Foreign peacekeepers warned on Sunday that Islamic militants might try to disrupt the assembly. (Read photo caption)

"We realize there is a disaffected minority and we must expect that they may take the opportunity to actually push their cause to disrupt the Loya Jirga process," Helen Wildman of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told a briefing.

"These people are not supporting the process...we are talking about perhaps al Qaeda, perhaps Taliban factions," she said.
But the 18-nation security force, charged with keeping the peace in Kabul, had not spotted any specific threat.

The ISAF has been based in Kabul since Karzai's government took power after the defeat of the Taliban last year. The force has trained a new multi-ethnic Afghan National Guard, whose base will be the site of the Loya Jirga event.

The force, known as 1BANG, has thrown a security cordon of armed vehicles around the site of the gathering. In addition, ISAF helicopters are expected to step up patrols of the city and surrounding areas.

PHOTO CAPTION

A British soldier attached to ISAF stands guard outside the compound in Kabul where the Loya Jirga will take place June 10-16 as an Aghan man washes himself for evening prayers June 8, 2002. Al Qaeda and Taliban forces may try to disrupt a historic Afghan tribal assembly gathering to choose a new transitional government a spokesman of the foreign peace keeping force in Kabul said. Picture taken June 8. (Caren Firouz/Reuters)