India and Russia ponder Afghanistan

Both Russia and India oppose the Taleban

By the BBC's Alastair Lawson in Delhi

A two-day meeting between India and Russia to discuss the situation in Afghanistan opens in Delhi on Thursday.

It is the first time the Indo-Russian Working Group on Afghanistan has met since the attack on the World Trade Centre in September.

The meeting is significant because it may highlight differences with the West over the make-up of any government in Afghanistan should the Taleban be removed from power.

The Taleban say hundreds of people have been killed

India and Russia both support Washington and London in their objective of killing or capturing Osama Bin Laden.

Moscow and Delhi have long been opposed to the Taleban and for many years have supported the opposition Northern Alliance.

But beyond that, there could be key differences between the views of Russia and India and those of the West.

Insufficient support

It seems that both Delhi and Moscow would like allies of the former Afghan President, Burhanuddin Rabbani, to play a prominent role in Afghanistan if the Taleban is toppled from power.

But their backing of Mr Rabbani's faction of the Northern Alliance may not be so popular in Washington, which believes that Mr Rabbani - an ethnic Tajik - may not command enough support among Afganistan's majority Pashtun community.

The meeting between the Indian and Russian diplomats follows on from a visit by the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Illya Klebanov, to Delhi last week.

India and Russia regard Afghanistan as strategically important and both are lobbying the Central Asian republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to support Mr Rabbani's faction.

The working group formed by the two countries on Afghanistan was launched in October last year following the visit of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to India.