New Afghan government being sworn in

Afghanistan's first peaceful transfer of power in decades has begun.

Tribal leaders have gathered for the inauguration of an interim government they hope will begin healing a nation torn apart by decades of war.

President Burhanuddin Rabbani, an elderly professor and poet, is yielding authority to Hamid Karzai, a 44-year-old Pashtun tribal leader.

A drum roll sounded in the background as Rabbani arrived and walked on a red carpet past an honour guard of smartly dressed Afghan soldiers.

Cleric Barkat Ullah opened the proceedings with Koran recitations in an almost haunting voice, and everyone stood to sing the national anthem. A number of speeches were scheduled before Karzai was to take the oath of office.

Behind the podium was a huge portrait of Ahmed Shah Masood, the legendary guerrilla leader who led the battle against Soviet occupation in the 1980s and was assassinated by a suicide bomb on September 9.

Security was extremely tight. Armed British Royal Marines in camouflage uniforms - the vanguard of an international force mandated to protect the new government - patrolled outside the whitewashed Interior Ministry where the inauguration took place.

Afghan police in uniform patrolled the city. Streets near the Interior Ministry were cordoned off and entire neighbourhoods were closed.

General Tommy Franks, the US commander of the coalition forces that drove out the Taliban regime, was among the invited guests, pledging to continue the search for fugitive members of the al Qaida terrorist network.

The 30-member government faces the staggering challenge of rebuilding a nation whose citizens are largely unprepared for a long, hungry winter and whose coffers were left empty by the ousted Taliban regime.