German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer says his government will play host to a critical meeting in Berlin next week, aimed at setting up a broad-based interim Afghan government.
The unexpectedly rapid collapse of Taleban control in Afghanistan has made creation of an interim administration in Kabul more urgent for the United States and its coalition partners, including Germany.
Meeting reporters here after talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Mr. Fischer confirmed that Germany will hold the meeting in Berlin at the request of the U.N. envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi: "I think it's very important to push forward and speed up this political process. And we are of course, in close cooperation with all of our allies, especially with the United States and the United Nations," he said.
Earlier, addressing a 22 nation conference on Afghan reconstruction here, Secretary Powell said the international community cannot carry out rebuilding on the scale required without the emergence of a broad-based post-Taleban authority, one that includes people of every Afghan ethnic group, region and women as well as men.