At UN-sponsored talks, Afghan parties agree on basics of power-sharing

Four Afghan factions meeting at United Nations-sponsored talks in Germany have reached agreement on basic principles for power-sharing, but many details - including the names of those who will participate in that arrangement - still need to be worked out, UN officials said today.

"We are inching forward here, inch by inch, towards an agreement that is acceptable to all four," said Ahmad Fawzi, the spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi.

On the fourth day of talks in Petersberg, Mr. Brahimi met today with the leaders and principal aides of each of the four factions - the Northern Alliance, the Rome group, the Cyprus group and the Peshawar group.

Meanwhile in New York, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, briefed the Security Council in closed session on the situation in Afghanistan. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also attended the meeting.