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Pakistan welcomes Afghan agreement

Pakistan has said it is willing to contribute to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan has welcomed the agreement on a future government for Afghanistan reached by opposition groups meeting in Germany and offered to contribute to reconstruction efforts in the Central Asian country.

Speaking to reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday, Aziz Ahmed Khan, spokesman for the Pakistani foreign ministry, offered congratulations to the United Nations on brokering the deal

"We hope that the Bonn meeting will soon agree on the composition of the interim administration," he said.

Khan added that despite his country's "economic constraints", Pakistan would "join the world community and contribute to international programs for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan".

Prior to the September 11 attacks on the United States, Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban administration in Afghanistan.

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Then, the Taliban controlled more than 90 percent of Afghanistan. But in the past month that has shrunk massively in the face of U.S. airstrikes and rapid ground advances by the opposition Northern Alliance.

At present the southern stronghold of Kandahar is the only city under Taliban control, along with a few isolated pockets of territory close to the Pakistan border.

Pashtun inclusion

The Alliance's rapid successes sparked fears in Islamabad that a new government, hostile to Pakistan for its previous support of the Taliban, would take power in Kabul.

Those fears would appear to have been allayed somewhat by the Bonn agreement although it remains to be seen which groups will occupy which posts in the interim administration.

Pakistan has been arguing that any successful future government for Afghanistan must include representation from the majority Pashtun ethnic group who live mainly in the south of the country.

By offering to contribute to reconstruction, Pakistan is keen to ensure that it is not once again faced with a conflict-ridden, unstable neighbor.

Pakistan has received hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees

Welcoming news of the Bonn agreement, Khan noted that over years of conflict in Afghanistan "Pakistan too has borne heavy economic and social costs".

"The provision of asylum to over 3 million refugees has resulted in environmental damage, proliferation of weapons, narcotics trafficking, smuggling and terrorist crimes," he said.

However, Khan also repeated Islamabad's call for the immediate demilitarization of Kabul and the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force there.

Such action he said was essential to ensure the success of the new administration.