Alliance chief slams peace deal

The head of the Northern Alliance has criticised the peace deal for Afghanistan on the eve of the announcement that British troops are to lead a peacekeeping force to Kabul at the weekend.

Former Afghan President Burhannudin Rabbani, a Tajik from the Jamiat-i-Islami Party, has denounced the deal negotiated by the UN in Bonn last week as "an offence to the Afghan people".

Mr Rabbani has been jockeying for power ever since his faction broke an agreement with the Alliance and made a grab for Kabul at the beginning of November.

His main military commander, Mohammad Qasim Fahim Khan, has consistently objected to the arrival of peacekeepers in Kabul, particularly any from Britain, and has said that only 1,000 blue helmets from the UN would be needed for the whole of Afghanistan.

The UN is expected to mandate a "transitory peace support operation" with a Security Council resolution by tomorrow afternoon.

At the same time the British government will announce that it will send the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, backed by a battalion from a line infantry regiment. The force itself will be under the brigade headquarters of 16 Air Assault Brigade.

The overall UK command, and possibly that of the whole UN contingent in Kabul, will come under the commander of the British 3rd Armoured Division, Major General John McColl.

Britain is treading warily in preparing to lead the peace force, building maximum support among the Allies supplying troops to the force and among Afghans on the ground. "They do not want to provoke a fight with Rabbani as soon as they get there," a Whitehall adviser said yesterday.

To ensure maximum security, the British contribution is likely to be larger than the 1,000 troops prescribed by General Fahim Khan.

"They are taking people from all over the place, signallers here, engineers there," said an officer serving with the 3rd Armoured Brigade.