By Judy Aita Washington File
United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The six nations bordering Afghanistan, plus Russia and the United States, agreed November 12 that there should be a "broad based, multi-ethnic, politically balanced, freely-chosen" government in Kabul and that the United Nations should work urgently to help Afghan groups establish such an administration.

The foreign ministers of the so-called "Six plus Two" group of nations met with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to hear a report from the UN special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, who had just returned from the region. The group consisted of the foreign ministers of China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and the United States. They are at the United Nations to participate in the General Assembly's general debate, which was postponed after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

At the end of the meeting, the ministers issued a declaration pledging their "continued support to efforts of the Afghan people to find a political solution" to the Afghan crisis and agreeing that there should be "the establishment in Afghanistan of a broad based, multi-ethnic, politically balanced, freely-chosen Afghan administration representative of their aspirations and at peace with its neighbors."

"This administration must be able to meet the needs of the Afghan people and respect human rights, regional stability, and Afghanistan's international obligations, including suppression of trade in narcotics," the declaration said.

In the declaration the ministers also endorsed Brahimi's work, welcomed the central role the United Nations has been playing in helping the Afghan people find a political alternative to the Taliban, and pledged continued support for the UN's humanitarian efforts both inside Afghanistan and in refugee camps in neighboring countries.

Talking with journalists after the meeting, Annan said that the foreign ministers "stressed the need for speed and there has been some movement very fast in trying to bring the political aspects in line with the military developments on the ground."

The secretary general said that through Brahimi the UN is going to "accelerate" the discussions with the Afghan parties to promote a broad based Afghan government. "Obviously we need to get them together and move as quickly as possible," he said.

"We have always been aware that when you get to these kinds of operations things can move very fast and sometimes can get stuck," Annan said. "In fact in the early days of the crisis when the council discussed this issue I used the words 'we have to be nimble, we have able to move quickly, and we have to be flexible' and I think we are at that stage where the nimbleness is going to come into play."

Brahimi, who is a former foreign minister of Algeria and had served as a special UN envoy to Afghanistan until he resigned in frustration two years ago, said that the declaration of the Six plus Two ministers "reaffirms the desire or the will of these countries to work together in support of what the United Nations is going to do."

Brahimi said that "in the next couple of days" the United Nations is going to try to get a representative sample of the Afghan population together and "see what kind of interim arrangements we can work out for Kabul."

"Don't forget we have always insisted that this process should be home grown. It is the Afghans who are going to decide," he said.

Asked if the Taliban would be included in the process, Brahimi answered "that includes everybody who is willing to participate in this."

In their declaration the ministers also condemned the export of international terrorism by the al-Qaeda network and the ruling Taliban authorities for allowing the continued use of Afghan territory for such terrorist activities.

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