At present, Afghanistan has no national army -- a fact that has allowed the country's feuding warlords to divide the country into scores of little fiefdoms, where the government's writ does not run.

In selecting the first battalion of 600 Afghans, the trainers -- British soldiers from the 3,700-strong U.N.-backed International Security Assistance Force -- have selected people from all of the country's many ethnic groups to give it a true national look.

In a statement issued in Kabul, ISAF said instructors from five countries -- Britain, Turkey, France, Italy and Germany -- will train the recruits.

The six-week course aims at teaching basic military discipline to the Afghan fighters, who are already experienced guerrilla fighters.

Although U.S. officials identify the establishment of a national army as the key to Afghanistan's stability, the interim government has appealed for the British-led peacekeeping force to be strengthened -- and for its mandate to be expanded. Currently the force only operates in Kabul.

The chairman of the interim government, Hamid Karzai, has said that an expanded peacekeeping force is more important than financial assistance in restoring peace and security to the country.

"I am basically reflecting here a demand, a request of the Afghan people" for more security assistance, Karzai said at a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair Feb. 1.

Karzai said anywhere between 10,000 and 70,000 peacekeepers would be needed to secure the country. By comparison, there are roughly 40,000 peacekeepers in Kosovo.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, said in Kabul Sunday the United States now shares his concern that feuding warlords would undermine Karzai's authority.

But the man in charge of the U.S. war in Afghanistan said Monday U.S. troops would not participate in any expanded peacekeeping force.

"I do not believe we will be involved in peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan," Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, told a news briefing in Tampa, Fla.

However, he assured the Afghans that Washington will likely offer advisers to help the ISAF and will assist with the training of the Afghan army.

Conceding that Afghanistan remains "murky and troublesome," Franks said responsibility for the country's stability rests with Afghanistan itself.

"The future of Afghanistan is going to be in the hands of the Afghan people. We're sure that the right thing to do is to have an Afghan national army," he said.

"We know that we want to begin the forming of this Afghan national army as quickly as we can. ... What we want to do is get ourselves set up with an Afghan national army that is able to serve the country of Afghanistan through time, with border security, police functions and the like."

Unlike Franks, the White House had some good news for Afghanistan on Monday. President Bush has given Afghanistan a waiver from a U.S. blacklist of drug-producing countries to allow American aid to the war-devastated country.

Afghanistan and Haiti were cited for failing to stem illegal drugs but Bush granted them both a waiver from penalties in the interests of U.S. national security.

The United States has said Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban militia and Osama bin Laden 's al Qaida network used Afghan drug profits to support terrorism.

The United States has pledged about $300 million to Kabul as part of a multi-billion dollar plan to rebuild Afghanistan.

Assured of U.S. support for his plans to rebuild his nation, Afghanistan's interim ruler Hamid Karzai was busy Monday in re-establishing Kabul's ties with its neighbors -- a delicate task considering many of them fueled the civil strife there for more than 23 years by providing weapons and financial assistance to various warring factions.

While he was redefining bilateral relations with the Iranian leaders in Tehran, Karzai sent his deputy, Hedayat Amin Arsala, to Pakistan to discuss reopening trade and banking links with another neighbor.

Karzai, who has already visited Pakistan, now goes to India for similar talks.

The interim Afghan leader also has visited the United States and other major world capitals to improve his country's image tarnished during five years of Taliban rule.

As Karzai strives to reintegrate Afghanistan into the international community, another American ally in the war on terror is grappling with the sensitive issue of the fate of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval camp in Cuba.

Britain said Monday it is waiting to hear about U.S. plans for five British citizens held in the camp on suspicion of having terrorist links but so far has received little indication of whether they are to be handed over or tried in the United States.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Monday reiterated that British and other prisoners would be repatriated if the United States was satisfied they would be put on trial and made available for future questioning.

In an interview with the Telegraph newspaper in London, he said that the United States would also repatriate al Qaida prisoners who are nationals of other countries under similar deals.

A Foreign Office spokesman told United Press International in London that Britain would prefer to have the men brought to justice at home and certainly would oppose the death penalty if any of them were put on trial in the United States.

In another significant development, the United States asked Pakistan Monday to turn over the man they hold responsible for masterminding the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

"The United States has made clear to Pakistan our position, that we would be interested in having ... (Ahmed Omar Saeed) Shaikh and others who are responsible for the killing (sent) to the United States," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters.

Earlier Monday, a court in Karachi, Pakistan, declined to charge Omar with murder. Local officials said there wasn't enough evidence against him and the judge urged the police to find the slain reporter's body. Omar was remanded to police custody for another 14 days.

U.S. officials asked for the extradition based on a 1931 treaty between the United States and what was then British-ruled India. They said there had been no response yet from Pakistan.

"Pakistan is a sovereign government; they have their own laws, they have their own rules. And if you can imagine if the horror was reversed and a Pakistani citizen was in the United States and was killed in the United States, we have our own laws, if we apprehended the killers," Fleischer said. "There would be a legitimate discussion about does the person get tried in the United States, or should the person get sent back to Pakistan."

President Bush expressed satisfaction on Monday with Pakistani efforts to bring Pearl's killers to justice. He said that in a telephone conversation, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf sounded distraught over the Wall Street Journal reporter's killing.

"He knew full well that those killers did not represent the vast, vast majority of people in his own country," Bush said in the Oval Office. "And he vowed to me on the phone that he would do everything in his power to chase down the killers and bring them to justice.

"And yes, we're always interested in -- in dealing with people who have harmed American citizens."

American University law professor Nicholas Kitterie told UPI in Washington the fact that Omar was a British citizen would have no bearing on the extradition request. But once returned to the United States, Omar would have access to British consular support.

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(With reporting by Kathy Gambrell in Washington and Shahid Iqbal in Karachi.)

Copyright © 2002 United Press International