"During our stay in Pakistan, we have talked and agreed with high-ranking Pakistani officials leadership and Afghan commanders on formation of a Supreme Council of National Unity with responsibility to fill a political vacuum", he told the official Iranian news agency IRNA in an exclusive interview.

He said indirect contacts had been also established with some "low-ranking" Taleban officials he did not identified.

Mr. Amin Arsla headed a three-member team representing the former Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah, considered by all parties involved in the complicated and complex situation in the war-torn Afghanistan, including the United States, the European Union and the United States as the best bet to head an interim coalition government to replace the falling Taleban

The team was dispatched to Islamabad to discuss the convention of the SCNU and an Emergency Loya Jirga, or the Assembly of the elders to be held inside Afghanistan after the fall of the Taleban.

Mr. Amin Arsla explained that the Council, comprising "a few members", would be responsible for constituting an urgent structure following the achievement of objectives (set by the ongoing military operations in Afghanistan led by the United States aimed at toppling the ruling Taleban authorities that protects Mr. Osama Ben Laden, the prime suspect of the 11 September suicide terrorist operations in New York and Washington D. C.).

He firmly said that the Loya Jirga should be convened inside Afghanistan and for this they could wait till the change takes place.

"In the meantime, the SCNU, representing all Afghan elements, should be broad enough to play the role of a provisional set-up. But we desire and are trying that the Loya Jirga be held as soon as possible", Mr. Amin Arsala added.

To a question about a possible role of Zaher Shah in the future of Afghanistan, Mr. Amin Arsla said that the former King does not have any desire for power. "His priority is to facilitate holding of a Loya Jirga", he said, adding that the role he would be given to at the Loya Jirga depended on the Assembly’s members".

"As an elder statesman, enjoying popularity in Afghanistan and being a symbol of unity, Zaher Shah has the right to convene a Loya Jirga", the former Foreign Minister observed, adding that the (former) King was ready to accept any decision of the Afghan people".

Pakistan, while accepting an interim but leading role for Zaher Shah in presiding over both the SCNU and the Emergency Loya Jirga, is also pushing for the participation of "moderate" Taleban elements in both instances, a position adamantly opposed by the anti-Taleban Northern Alliance and Iran, one of its main supporters, observers said.

"The Northern Alliance is of the opinion that Iran’s negative reaction to American intervention in Afghanistan weakens not only the Alliance’s position, but also that of other anti-Taleban forces, including Russia and India" commented Mr. Zaher Tanin, an Afghan journalist.