U.S. is urging Afghans to 'rise up'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The dire humanitarian and security situation in Afghanistan has created what some U.S. officials call "fertile ground" for a "homegrown" challenge to Taliban rule.

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Officials said they were working with a variety of what they called "Afghan nationalists," ethnic, religious and political groups in Afghanistan and abroad, in the hope that they would band together and form a new coalition government.

The officials stressed, however, they could not "impose a new government on the Afghan people.

"The question is, have the conditions changed enough so that Afghans themselves can effect a realignment," one official said. "Maybe it is time for the Afghan people to rise up."

"To have a successful regime in Afghanistan, it has to be home grown," an official said. "You have to come up with a formula that is balanced with all ethnic groups and sects."

CNN has learned the Afghan Support Group, a coalition of 22 donor nations that provide humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, plans to hold an emergency meeting Thursday in Berlin. One official said the group would discuss the "reconstruction" of Afghanistan.

The Bush administration has also met quietly with moderate members of the Taliban regime and a number of Afghan opposition groups. The most widely known group is the Northern Alliance -- freedom fighters based in the northern part of the country.

There are two other main Afghan coalitions: the so-called Rome group led by the former Afghan king and his supporters; and the Cyprus group which includes exiled Afghan intellectuals, former congressmen, ministers and university professors.

Both have been working within a U.N. framework to promote a peaceful transition government in Afghanistan.

"The social-political fabric of Afghanistan will be represented in this administration," Quadir Amiryar, a professor at George Washington University and a member of the Cyprus group, told CNN.

"Then that can bring the people of Afghanistan into a stage that they will be able to form their own government and produce peace in Afghanistan."

The hope, one Bush administration official said, is that a new government would isolate the terrorist groups within the country and "make them more targetable" for a military operation.

Administration officials told CNN the United States wants to use the former Afghan king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, as a "rallying force" to bring these groups, in Afghanistan and around the world, together.

In a message broadcast on Voice of America radio, the former king urged his former subjects to "rescue ourselves from this dangerous situation."

"I am convinced with your participation and the cooperation of the international community our struggle for the return of peace shall continue until we fulfill our desired goal, which is the liberation of our homeland and people," the King said in his radio address.

Next week members of the Cyprus and Rome groups, as well as Afghans from within the country and in Pakistan, will meet in Cyprus to discuss the situation and "next steps," Dr. Amiryar said. He said he would then travel to Rome to meet with the exiled king.

He said that although the political will exists for the Afghan people to form a new government, the Afghans need the international community to "allocate some funds for the promotion of peace inside Afghanistan."

"We are working for peace but we are empty handed," he said. "We don't have the means -- the material means, the financial means and support.

Administration officials said the wild card in any plan to influence a change in government in Afghanistan is Pakistan, which helped create the Taliban and does not want a change in government.

Officials said they expect Pakistan to try to ensure any new Afghan government would not be hostile to Pakistan.

"Comments from Pakistan indicate a lot of nervousness about what comes next," one official said. "They see the writing on the wall, that the Taliban as we all know it is over. And we can't win in Afghanistan and then lose Afghanistan."

-- CNN State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel and Producer Elise Labott contributed to this report.