"The meeting in Germany will be a first but very important step towards achieving the dreams and the hopes of all Afghans", Mr. Vendrell said.

"This is a difficult time in Afghanistan and the fact that the Northern Alliance are willing to travel abroad in this rather challenging circumstances is a signal of flexibility", the Spanish diplomat observed.

Alliance leaders had earlier sought to convene the meeting in Kabol, but they had to accept a neutral place under heavy pressures from the United States and the United Nations.

The alliance's foreign minister, Abdollah Abdollah, who attended the Kabol news conference where the announcement was made, said his delegation would represent a wide spectrum of Afghans.

The Northern Alliance is mostly made up of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks, but Abdullah has said it also includes many Pashtoons, Afghanistan's most dominant ethnic group.

"There should be a fair chance for everybody to play his role", Abdullah said, referring to the participation of Pashtoons, who are poorly represented in the Northern Alliance.

The planned meeting in Europe could be a precursor to the convocation of a Loya Jirga, or the Assembly of the Elders. American, Europeans and UN officials hopes that the Loya Jirga can agree on the composition of a provisional government that can manage reconstruction while overseeing efforts to form lasting state institutions.

The Hazaras, Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group who are mostly Sh’ite Muslims, will also be represented at the meeting.

"The U.N. will pay special attention to the Hazaras, who have been in the past, historically the most disadvantaged group amongst various ethnic groups in Afghanistan", Vendrell said.

In an interview with CNN in Kabol, Borhaneddin Rabbani, president of the Islamic Government of Afghanistan said he accepted the plan to have the first meeting outside Afghanistan.

Rabbani returned to Kabol on Saturday after five years in exile. Some feared his move was a political ploy to regain power, but he assured he was not seeking to "renew" his mandate (as the president of the Islamic Government of Afghanistan, which is recognised by the United Nations).

"I would hope that Mr. Rabbani also is aware of this since he knows intimately the history of his own country", the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said referring to the role of Mr. Rabbani in post-Taleban Afghanistan.

He warned that if the Afghan do not agree on a broad-based government, "if one group tries to control power and assert itself, it is going to create problems down the line".

But experts and diplomats said they would not be surprised if the scheduled two-days meeting do not reach agreement, as some participants, particularly the Northern Alliance expresses his opposition for the deployment of a multi-national armed force to provide security.

Seeking to avoid a repetition of history, Mr. Brahimi warned that delays in implementing the UN stabilisation plan would diminish the chances of its success.