Profile: Abdullah Abdullah

Dr Abdullah has played a key role in foreign affairs

The removal of Abdullah Abdullah from the cabinet marks the exit of the last major Northern Alliance leader from the Hamid Karzai government.

The president had earlier removed Mohammed Fahim and Yunus Qanuni from his cabinet in a reshuffle in 2004.

A Tajik-Pashtun and doctor by profession, Abdullah became involved in refugee work in Pakistan and later gravitated towards Tajik resistance hero Ahmed Shah Masood, becoming a senior adviser and close associate in the 1980s.

Serving as foreign minister in the short-lived government headed by the Northern Alliance, Dr Abdullah continued as "foreign minister in exile" throughout the years of rule of the Taleban, who most countries refused to recognise.

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Afghanistan

There is some confusion over whether his name should have two elements or one, the latter being the style for many Afghan names.

Some reports suggest the second "Abdullah" emerged as a result of a misunderstanding at a news conference.

Power base

While the embattled Northern Alliance troops struggled to maintain their base north of Kabul, Dr Abdullah also spent a considerable amount of time abroad lobbying foreign governments for political and material help.

Fluent in both English and French, he served as spokesman for Gen Masood abroad, emerging as the best known face of Afghanistan.

Dr Abdullah, now 45, continued in that role under the Hamid Karzai government following the fall of the Taleban.

In the aftermath of the assassination of Gen Masood, Dr Abdullah became one of the three pivotal Northern Alliance figures along with Gen Fahim and Mr Qanuni.

The government formed after the ousting of the Taliban in 2001 was dominated by the Northern Alliance - something that President Karzai has sought to change.

Karzai supporters see this trend as redressing an imbalance, but critics say he has unfairly marginalised the alliance, which fought the Taleban until the bitter end.

Dr Abdullah lacks his own power base within the Northern Alliance, which might explain why he lasted so long in the Karzai government - but could also be the reason for his eventual replacement as foreign minister.