Setback for Afghan Government

The loya jirga was beset by quarrels

Afghanistan's former interior minister, Yunis Qanooni, has said he has not decided whether or not to accept any post in the country's fledgling administration.

What was announced contradicts what was agreed upon

Yunis Qanooni

His comments followed attempts by Afghan leader Hamid Karzai to avoid a rift in his new government by finding a position for the powerful Tajik leader.

Mr Qanooni, a key figure in the Northern Alliance, was reacting to an official announcement that he was to take the education portfolio and act as a national security adviser.

But he was quoted as saying he had not met Mr Karzai since the appointment, and was considering forming an opposition party.

He also criticised Mr Karzai's handling of last week's loya jirga, or grand assembly, and insisted he fulfil his pledge to set up a legitimate parliament.

Job offer

Mr Qanooni was initially offered the job of education minister on the last day of the loya jirga.

The offer came a week after he resigned the interior ministry "for the sake of national unity", making way for Mr Karzai's choice of an ethnic Pashtun, Taj Mohammad Wardak.

Qanooni says he may join an opposition party

But his refusal on Sunday to say whether he would accept the new positions has once again thrown Afghanistan's attempts to form a new government into confusion.

"I have heard that Mr Karzai wants to give me the education ministry. I am still doing consultations. I have not yet decided," he was quoted as saying.

"What was announced contradicts what was agreed upon," he said.

Mr Karzai had been trying to produce a more ethnically balanced cabinet than that of his six-month interim government which was dominated by members of the Northern Alliance which helped international forces overthrow the Taleban.

No post or replacement has been announced for interim women's minister Sima Samar

Though Pashtuns form the majority in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance was dominated by ethnic Tajiks.

Some Pashtuns have felt they have been victimised because the Taleban were mainly Pashtun and other ethnic groups such as the Uzbeks also wanted greater representation.

The continuing disagreements are likely to raise fears that Afghan politics will again break down into the factional fighting that ravaged the country in the early 1990s.

Ethnic rivalry

The key foreign and defence ministries remain with Tajiks and a list of 28 cabinet members reported by the Associated Press showed Tajiks had another five posts, plus one given to a Pashtun from a Tajik-dominated party.

Two ministries - civil aviation and tourism - were taken from supporters of former king Mohammed Zahir Shah and given to Northern Alliance supporters.

Mr Karzai, himself a Pashtun, named 12 other Pashtuns to his cabinet, three Uzbeks, two Hazaras, two Shias and a Turkman.

Mr Karzai has not yet appointed anyone to the post of women's minister.

Sima Samar, who held the position in the interim government, has been accused of being "un-Islamic" by hardliners, but she has rejected the suggestions she was guilty of blasphemy.