American-picked Afghan president Hamid Karzai issued a decree establishing the procedure for choosing delegates to a new traditional assembly, which is to adopt the country's next constitution in October. After the constitutional loya jirga approves the draft in October, preparations may begin for elections to be held by June 2004 under the Bonn agreement signed in 2001 following the fall of the Taliban. Of the 500 members of the loya jirga, 450 are to be elected by representatives of the population and 50 will be designated by Karzai himself, the official Bakhter news agency reported, citing the decree signed by the head of state. District representatives, numbering 15,000, will vote for 344 of the elected delegates to the loya jirga, while 42 members - 15 per cent of whom must be female will be elected to represent refugees, nomads, the displaced and Hindu and Sikh minorities. Afghan women will also choose 64 female delegates to the traditional assembly, according to the decree. Elections are to start in August, with district representatives meeting in the country's major cities to choose delegates by simple majority, a process that will be dictated by the Afghan constitution commission. The commission, charged with establishing the new fundamental laws for the country, has since June 7 coordinated a nationwide public consultation on the new constitution. The consultation period was criticized as it did not make the draft document available to the very public that was to comment on it. **NATO Troops to Stay till Restoration of Peace*** Nato chief George Robertson said Wednesday that the alliance intends to stay in Afghanistan for as long as it takes to restore peace and security. The alliance is due next month to take over the command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan sanctioned by the UN Security Council. After a meeting with the Afghan foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, Robertson told reporters that Nato would be in Afghanistan "until we succeed. We're there until the job doesn't need to be done." ISAF, which is currently under the command of Germany and the Netherlands, will be largely made up of Canadian troops when it comes under the command of Nato. The force assists the country's interim government in training its security forces, and is responsible for security in Kabul and the immediately surrounding area. Hamid Karzai has said many Afghans would like to see international peacekeepers operating throughout the country, but "expansion of ISAF was not being discussed today," Abdullah said. Asked if he believed that Osama bin Laden was hiding beyond the reach of US security forces in Afghanistan, Abdullah replied that both bin Laden and Mohammed Omar, the former Taliban leader, were probably "in the neighbourhood" but not in Afghanistan. Robertson said that Afghanistan "may well be one of the toughest (missions) that we've taken on. "It is not a brief commitment," he said. "This is a lasting commitment and we don't intend to fail." **NO MAJOR ROLE IN IRAQ*** Robertson also said the alliance has no plans for a greater role in postwar Iraq, where mounting US casualties at the hands of Iraqi guerrillas has prompted calls for the deployment of a Nato force. "Nato is already committed in helping in Iraq," Robertson told reporters. "We are not at a stage yet of looking at any broader involvement to Iraq, largely because we're trying to make a success of the work that we are doing." Currently Nato's involvement in postwar Iraq extends to providing logistical support to a Polish-led division of a multinational stabilisation force. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Taliban fighters have urged Afghan people to join a jihad against the administration of President Hamid Karzai. (AFP/File/Shah Marai)