HIGHLIGHTS: Karzai Wants to Be Inaugurated President Wednesday||Rockets Fall Some Distance from U.S. Embassy & Near Residence of Former Afghan King||Security Stepped up at Loya Jirga Tent After Attacks|| STORY: Two Rockets Landed in the vicinity of the U.S. embassy in Kabul as Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) wrangled over the formation of a new cabinet.

Karzai, caught in a balancing act among competing ethnic groups, said Tuesday he would delay naming his unity cabinet for another day.

Karzai also told some 1,600 delegates at a Loya Jirga meeting that he wants to be inaugurated formally as president Wednesday. The Loya Jirga is a traditional assembly of delegates representing various parts of Afghan society.

While Karzai was considering his new, broad-based cabinet, at least two rockets exploded in suburbs near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, but there were no reports of casualties.

It was unclear if the U.S. Embassy was the target. One missile landed about 800 yards from the U.S. mission, while the other was near the residence of former king Mohammad Zahir Shah, witnesses said.

TIGHT SECURITY AT LOYA JIRGA TENT AFTER ATTACKS

Security was stepped up near the giant Loya Jirga tent after the attacks.

There has been a spate of rocket attacks in Kabul, blamed on dissatisfied warlords and remnants of the former Taliban regime, which was ousted last year by Northern Alliance forces, backed by U.S. air strikes.

Karzai, who was due to submit his cabinet Tuesday, said he had needed more time for discussions and to meet the former king, promising to announce his cabinet at 5 p.m. local time on Wednesday.

Karzai, elected in a landslide by the Loya Jirga last week, was supposed to be inaugurated on June 22 but told delegates: "We had better do it while you are here."

The cabinet, and the assembly's reaction to it, will be a key test for the Loya Jirga and whether it succeeds in uniting the country's disparate tribes after decades of bloodshed.

U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmai Khalilzad said that under last year's Bonn accord Karzai had to seek the Loya Jirga's approval for cabinet posts, contradicting suggestions that Karzai merely would inform the assembly of his decisions.

PHOTO CAPTION

In this photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, members of the 86th Airlift Wing Honor Guard remove a flag-draped casket containing the remains of one of three service members killed in the crash of a MC-130 special operations aircraft, Monday June 17, 2002 at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The crewmembers were killed in eastern Afghanistan on 12 June 2002. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force Photo, Master Sgt. John P. Snow/HO)