Deal signed on Afghan peace force

British troops have been in Kabul since 22 December

A formal agreement has been signed on the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Interior Minister Younis Qanooni and the British General who will lead the force, John McColl, signed the deal at a ceremony in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday.

Peacekeepers' role

Assist interim government

Guard buildings and roads

Patrol streets

Train Afghan security forces

Assist with reconstruction

The announcement came as negotiations were being stepped up for the surrender of Taleban fighters in southern Afghanistan and the search continued for their leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Soon afterwards the US announced it had suffered its first military fatality of the war in Afghanistan when a special forces fighter was killed by enemy fire near the eastern town of Gardez.

The deal

The "military-technical agreement" - as the accord is known - spells out the details of the role of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is expected to number 4,500.

The international troops will work alongside Afghan police to maintain security in Kabul. It has been agreed that Afghan military units will remain in their barracks.

The signing ceremony was held in Kabul

The force will be led by Britain for the first three months of its six-month deployment, which General McColl said might be extended.

An advance party comprising British and French troops and 24 reconnaissance officers from 12 European countries has already arrived in Afghanistan and is preparing five bases for the remainder of the troops expected to arrive by mid-January.

Five hundred French troops - 300 marines and 200 paratroopers - are reported to be preparing to leave for the region on Sunday to join the force.

We are looking for him, Mullah Omar. He is a criminal of an international standard and he should be delivered

Hamid Karzai

Afghanistan's new interim leader Hamid Karzai said he hoped the presence of international peacekeepers would bring "the stability and peace that we needed for so many years".

"We also hope that the co-operation between the Afghan state and the international security force and the United Nations will bring to an absolute end the presence of terrorism and banditry in Afghanistan," Mr Karzai said.

Taleban 'surrounded'

Meanwhile, an estimated 1,500 fighters are surrounded by local anti-Taleban forces in Baghran, 160 km (100 miles) north-west of the southern city of Kandahar.

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Mullah Omar may be among those surrounded.

"That situation will be made clear tomorrow or the day after," he told reporters.

Interim leader Hamid Karzai has rejected reports that Mullah Omar has already been captured.

Mr Abdullah says Mullah Omar may be surrounded

"We are looking for him, Mullah Omar. He is a criminal of an international standard and he should be delivered. If the US wants him, we will deliver him to the United States," Mr Karzai told the American ABC news.

The senior Taleban commander in Baghran, Abdul Ahad, has said the Taleban leader might be handed over if the Americans halt their bombing campaign.

However, Nasratullah Nasrat - spokesman for the head of intelligence in Kandahar - said there was no certainty that Abdul Ahad was actually in a position to hand over the mullah.

Al-Qaeda suspects shelled

The US said on Friday it was continuing to bomb a suspected al-Qaeda compound in the Khost region, near the border with Pakistan.

Bombers began targeting the site on Thursday after US intelligence detected convoys and other information pointing to the presence of al-Qaeda leaders, Pentagon officials said.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency reported that the air strikes had killed 32 people, quoting witnesses as saying the bombing was so intense that residents had no chance to remove bodies.

The same compound was attacked in August 1998 over the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.