Germany meeting on Afghanistan delayed

The conference, which will take place in Bonn, Germany, had been scheduled to begin Monday. It was postponed by one day to give the Afghan delegations time to confer, said Ahmad Fawzi, the chief spokesman for the top U.N. envoy on Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi.

Fawzi said 20 to 30 Afghans will attend, representing the various ethnic groups and factions in the country.

He said the aim is to forge an agreement on a provisional council that would run a post-Taliban Afghanistan until a transitional government is formed.

This meeting seeks "concrete steps to be followed to convene a provisional council, which would be composed of a fairly large and representative group" of Afghans," he said.

The German Foreign Ministry said the delay was caused by logistical problems in getting everyone to Bonn.

Some delegations and U.N. officials will arrive over the weekend, it said, but others won't get there until Tuesday because of "technical difficulties," it said in a statement.

Those who arrive early will have time for talks with each other and with Brahimi, but the conference will officially open when all participants have arrived in Germany, it said.

The Taliban will not be represented at the meeting at a hotel overlooking the former West German capital, but there will be representatives from the Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Fawzi said four delegations will attend: the northern alliance, which now controls most of Afghanistan; a group of Afghan exiles based in Cyprus; a Rome-based group supporting the nation's deposed king, Mohammad Zaher Shah; and a predominantly Pashtun group of Afghans based in Peshawar, Pakistan.