Talks moving towards deal on

Talks on Afghanistan’s political future moved into a decisive phase today, with pressure building on the Northern Alliance to agree to an interim administration.

UN mediators were prodding the fractious alliance to present a long-delayed list of people it wants to propose for an interim post-Taliban executive to run the country, and a larger council similar to a legislature.

Participants said the emerging deal may be limited to the smaller executive body.

‘‘That’s the way things are going right now,’’ a senior US official at the talks said. ‘‘There’s a lot of discussion about a possible deal.’’

The other sides - a delegation of former Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah and two smaller exile groups - have completed their lists, which UN mediators want to lock in while the participants are on neutral ground in Germany.

‘‘We are pressing for something by the end of the day,’’ said Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for the UN-sponsored talks, now in their fifth day.

The conference at a sealed off hilltop hotel near Bonn stalled yesterday after Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani insisted in Kabul that key decisions about an interim administration be made in Afghanistan.

The fate of the talks appeared to hinge on whether alliance delegates could convince Rabbani to give in.

UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi telephoned Rabbani overnight, Fawzi said, apparently to win his support for the negotiating process.

All four factions met with UN envoys around midday today as hard bargaining continues.

The Alliance has routed the Taliban from much of Afghanistan with the help of US air strikes since the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

But splits among the various warlords in the alliance exposed the complexities of leaving behind 22 years of war and civil conflict and raised questions about the meaning of any deal reached in Germany.

Ismail Khan, a Northern Alliance leader running the eastern city of Herat, insisted that people in Afghanistan should not be pressured into accepting new leaders - or a continued foreign troop presence.

‘‘Any government and any leader imposed on the Afghan people by foreign countries won’t be able to last for long,’’ he told Al-Jazeera television, alluding to the ex-king.

‘‘The Afghan people should be allowed to determine their faith and future.’’

A warlord who controls fighters trying to lay siege to Kandahar, the last Taliban stronghold, also said he opposes forming an interim government in Germany.

Gul Agha complained that Pashtuns have been given too small a role, the Pakistani newspaper Daily Jang reported today. The Pashtuns are the largest Afghan ethnic group and predominate in the south of the country.

With his hardline remarks at the presidential palace in Kabul, Rabbani bucked US pressure for the alliance to agree on the first steps toward a post-Taliban government.

Rabbani said he opposed a consensus developing at the talks on the appointment, rather than election, of an interim governing council and on a major role for the former Afghan king.

He also objected to any international security force, saying he would prefer an all-Afghan force with 1,000 fighters from each faction. Any foreign contribution should be limited to 200, Rabbani said.

US envoy James F Dobbins made plain yesterday that Washington wants a full accord in Germany - including an agreement on people to sit in the interim bodies.

‘‘We are pressing a different view’’ than Rabbani’s, Dobbins said. ‘‘It is important that this be overcome and that they go ahead, as this is a tremendous, maybe unique, opportunity for Afghanistan.’’

All sides have agreed in principle to set up an executive body that would have 15-25 members and the supreme council with up to 200. But the distribution of seats, the people to fill them and the role of the ex-king remain unresolved.