Tajikistan's defence minister, General Sherali, Khairullayev postponed a visit to India, due to begin on Thursday, until next week for technical reasons, the Tajik Defence Ministry said.

The postponement was announced only hours after unidentified gunmen attacked the Parliament in New Delhi, leaving at least 12 people dead. Khairullayev's scheduled December 13-20 visit was intended to provide an opportunity for him to discuss the Afghan war, and security in the wider central and South Asian regions, with his Indian counterpart George Fernandes.

Both Russian allies, Tajikistan and India have lent support to the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance, whose rout of Taliban forces has sparked fears in Pakistan that ethnic Pashtuns might be locked out of power in Kabul. Pakistan was the mostly-Pashtun Taliban's closest ally until it reversed its policy following the September 11 terrorist attacks blamed on Osama bin Laden. Meanwhile, the fall of the Taliban has ushered in political uncertainty among ethnic Pashtuns who dominate Afghanistan as well as the frontier tribal areas of Pakistan despite the nomination of Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai as head of an interim government. Bureau Report