Straw lobbies Afghan neighbours

Straw said discussions with the Iranian foreign minister had been constructive

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is on a two-day trip to Iran and Pakistan as part of negotiations over the future of Afghanistan.

He held talks in Tehran with Iranian Foreign Minister Dr Kamal Kharrazi and Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah on Thursday.

The United States and Britain want to see a broad-based, multi-ethnic government replace the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

Islamabad wants Pashtuns, who form Afghanistan's largest ethnic group and who dominate much of Pakistan's border regions, to take a leading role in a future government. Tehran wants the minority Shi'ite Muslims to be represented.

Straw, who met Kharrazi and the brother of Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said afterwards that Iranian and British views on the future of Afghanistan "coincide."

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"Iran is the most powerful and the most influential country in region," Straw said at a news conference in Tehran after his meetings. "In the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the setting up of a broad-based government, Iran must play a decisive role."

Kharrazi emphasized that Afghani affairs must return to the hands of Afghans.

"Based on past experience in Afghanistan where a government was forced on them by the outside, they never lasted and they created more problems and disturbances and instability in the region," Kharrazi said.

"If this is repeated, the people of Afghanistan will resist and there will be further crisis in Afghanistan."

Straw insisted that the international mission in Afghanistan would not supplant the will of the Afghan people, and that an international military presence there would last only as long as necessary and would be withdrawn when it was no longer needed.

Reformist member of parliament Hadi Khamenei underscored recent comments from Washington and London regarding the treatment of women by the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, saying that women in particular must have a say in the future of the embattled central Asian nation.

"The fate of the Afghan people is extremely important to Iran," Khamenei said, calling for a general referendum to decide who will rule the country when the Taliban are deposed.

Khamenei also said that Iran condemns terrorism, and called on the international community not to remain indifferent to what he called "state terrorism perpetuated by Israel," a call that has been repeated by numerous Muslim nations since the U.S.-led war on terrorism began.

The British foreign secretary also met Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah in Tehran, and was to travel to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad late on Thursday.

When he arrives in Pakistan, he is expected to be greeted by Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar. He is then due to meet Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, early on Friday before departing the city by midday.

The trip is Straw's second visit to the region since the September 11 attacks on the United States.