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N. Alliance agrees to talks in Europe

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Northern Alliance has accepted an invitation to discuss Afghanistan's future with the United Nations and other Afghan representatives in Germany next week, the U.N. announced on Tuesday.

"This is a difficult time in Afghanistan and the fact that they (Northern Alliance) are willing to travel abroad in this rather challenging circumstances is a signal of flexibility," said Francesc Vendrell, the deputy of U.N. envoy to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi.

"The meeting in Germany will be a first but very important step towards achieving the dreams and the hopes of all Afghans."

Vendrell said they have not yet confirmed the city where the meeting will take place, but it is planned to open on Monday.

The Northern Alliance, as well as a delegation representing former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah, and two smaller Afghan groups will attend the meeting, Vendrell said, which will lay the groundwork for building of a broad-based transitional post-Taliban Afghan government.

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The alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, who attended the Kabul news conference where the announcement was made, said his delegation would represent a wide spectrum of Afghans.

The Northern Alliance is mostly made up of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks, but Abdullah has said it also includes many Pashtuns -- Afghanistan's most dominant ethnic group.

Vendrell emphasized that the fact that the Pashtun-dominated Taliban are not invited to participate does not mean Pashtuns will not be represented.

"(Pashtuns) will be represented in every delegation that attends," Vendrell told CNN. "Let's not equate the Pashtuns with the Taliban."

The Hazaras, Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group, will also be represented at the meeting.

"The U.N. will pay special attention to the Hazaras, who have been in the past, historically the most disadvantaged group amongst various ethnic groups in Afghanistan," Vendrell said.

In an interview with CNN in Kabul, Burhanuddin Rabbani, president of the Northern Alliance-led government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, said he accepted the plan to have the first meeting outside Afghanistan.

He said the Germany gathering will be symbolic, however. He said later talks on a post-Taliban government must be held in Afghanistan.

Rabbani returned to Kabul on Saturday after five years in exile. Some feared his move was a political ploy to regain power, but Rabbani said he came on a peace mission.

Vendrell said Rabbani's view is "a wish ... shared by many Afghans," and the U.N. would support a meeting in Afghanistan if all the other groups agreed to it.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Japan's special envoy for Afghanistan, former U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees Sadako Ogata, convened a meeting Tuesday discuss the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Powell said that a broad-based interim government would be crucial to the international community's ability to provide support and assistance to Afghanistan.

"We are unable to carry out what's needed until there is an Afghan partner," he said, adding that the purpose of Tuesday meeting was not to pledge support but to begin the process of actively planning a strategy. .

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- who was in Canada over the weekend meeting with the country's leaders as well as international financial officials -- repeated his call for a broad-based government in Afghanistan, warning of the complications that would ensue if a single faction sought to assert power.

"If they do not do that and one group tries to control power and assert itself, it is going to create problems down the line," said Annan, who made his comments in response to a question on the role of Rabbani. "I would hope that Mr. Rabbani also is aware of this since he knows intimately the history of his own country," Annan said.