John Vause: Peacekeepers in Afghanistan

(CNN) -- British troops began to arrive in Afghanistan on Thursday to spearhead a multinational stabilization force. Their mission is to maintain control of Kabul while Afghanistan's interim leadership takes charge of the government.

CNN's John Vause is based in the Afghan capital. He filed this report before the troops arrived.

VAUSE: We are waiting for those British troops. They'll be touching down at Bagram Air Base. That's about an hour north of Kabul. Their job in the next two days will mainly be to protect U.N. officials and diplomats, as well as Afghan government officials, for a swearing-in ceremony of the new interim government.

That force will grow over the coming years to anywhere up to 5,000 troops. It'll be led by the British. They're contributing 1,500 troops to that international stabilization force.

There's still some confusion about how much authority or how much power they'll have on the streets of Afghanistan. One of the generals here says that their role will be largely symbolic. That's at odds with (the expectations of) some members of the interim government itself, as well as the U.N., as well as local Afghans on the streets who are very much hopeful that this new international stabilization force will, in fact, keep the peace.

We're also waiting for some New York firefighters and New York police officers to arrive. They'll be touching down in about 16 hours from now and they'll be bringing with them 29 metric tons of food for Afghan orphans. They'll be bringing some cooking oil, some rice and some powdered milk. They're working in conjunction with the World Food Program.

And we're told that these firefighters and policemen were at the World Trade Center immediately in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.