Kabul, Oct 06: Disgruntled factions within Afghanistan's coalition government have held meetings to consider withdrawing their support for President Hamid Karzai in the run-up to elections next year, officials said today. The instability comes as this war-ravaged country's various ethnic and political groups try to agree on a new constitution that will lay the foundation for the first democratic elections in decades, scheduled for June. The political wrangling also comes as Karzai grapples with a recent upsurge in attacks by Taliban and al-Qaeda militants against American forces, aid workers and the US-backed government. Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the Oct 7, 2001, launch of operation enduring freedom, the US war that ousted the Taliban. About 11,500 US-led coalition troops are still hunting down holdouts who appear to have regrouped in the past few months.
Leaders of the northern alliance - the mainly ethnic-Tajik grouping of militia leaders, some of whom are members of the government - have met several times in the past week to consider various candidates for the elections, said Hafiz Mansour, publisher of a weekly newspaper, Payum-i-Majahid, which represents the Northern Alliance.

"Karzai's government has failed to rebuild this country. We are looking for another candidate to run in his place," he said. "This is a major threat to his government."

He declined to name the leaders involved. He said discussions were ongoing to choose a presidential candidate.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Omar Samad, acknowledged that there had been a series of meetings by frustrated coalition members, but said they did not represent a threat to Karzai, a member of the Pashtun Ethnic Group.
Bureau Report