The 87 years-old Mohammad Zaher Shah left Rome tonight in a special chartered plane to Kabol via a Central Asian capital, accompanied by the interim Prime Minister, Hamed Karzai and several of his ministers, including those of Interior Yunes Qanooni and Foreign Affairs Abdollah Abdollah, who had flew to the Italian capital to take the King back home.

Zaher Shah was ousted in a 1973 coup led by his cousin Mohammed Daoud while on holiday in Italy, but many of his former subjects remember his reign affectionately as a time of relative peace and hope, where women had equal rights with men, basic freedoms were respected and the nation was prosper.

The official Iranian news agency IRNA, usually prolific on news from Afghanistan and which has offices in both Kabol and Rome, is silent on the return of Zaher Shah, expressing the official’s uneasiness.

But Dr Abdollah assured that the presence in Kabol of the former Monarch poses no threat to any of Afghanistan’s neighbours. "This is a problem that concern the Afghans only", he told Ahmad Ra’fat of the Persian service of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty.

He described the return of Zaher Shah as a "positive step" for the realisation of national unity and a great help for the political process and stability in Afghanistan.

Asked if his life was not endangered by Taleban or Al-Qa'eda terrorists who ruled Afghanistan until six months ago, Dr. Abdollah said though the danger of the Taleban and Al-Qa'eda is not over completely, yet he has not worried for the Shah's security.

The plane carrying the former king, Afghan ministers, security personnel, a personal doctor and family left from a military airport outside Rome shortly after midnight (2200 GMT), about an hour later than scheduled.

"The last few years of my life, I'd like to dedicate that to the people of Afghanistan and to my country," Zahir Shah told CNN in an interview hours before he left.

Though the King has repeated time and again that he does intend to restore monarchy and would like to live the life of an ordinary Afghan, yet the Iranian clerical rulers are not that certain, as some members in his family have said he would agree to lead the war-torn nation if the Loya Jirga chose him to do so.

Mr. Karzai, the UN-installed Premier has indicated that his political sympathy goes for a parliamentarian republic than a monarchy.

The flight, which is being organised by the Italian air force, will take Zaher Shah and the other passengers to a country neighbouring Afghanistan where they are to board two Italian C-130 transport planes that will land at Kabol or Bagram air base to the north of the Afghan capital, according to Italy's deputy foreign minister Margherita Boniver.

A massive security operation has been launched in the Afghan capital to ensure that the return goes smoothly, off the back of the arrests of more than 200 people last month over an alleged bomb plot against the interim regime. Blockades have been erected through much of the centre of the capital while intensive security exercises have been mounted.

"It's a marvellous thing to be able to bring back the ex-king to his country", Karzai told reporters on his arrival at Ciampino airport outside Rome on Tuesday.

"It's a new Afghanistan which is welcoming all its sons, including the ex-king, a father figure and a symbol of the nation's unity. It means that Afghanistan has finally gained peace and stability, that his majesty the former king can go back and stay there", Karzai said on Wednesday. "His presence there will add stability and peace to Afghanistan."

While a great majority of the Afghan people are rejoicing at the return of the former King, some, including Isma’il Khan, the Iranian-backed governor of Heart has said that there was no place in the new Afghanistan for a monarchy.

In an interview with the British news agency Reuters, Khan made clear he saw no role for the ex-king despite Karzai's hopes the monarch could become a unifying figure for Afghanistan's many ethnic groups.

The tricky process towards the election of the 1.051 members, including, for the first time, some 160 women, to the Loya Jirga started on Monday. The grand assembly is due to seat next June.

"The representatives will nominate the future leader, take decisions over key government structures and important figures running the government and decide whether the interim administration of Karzai stays as a transitional government to guide the country to elections in a further two years, or is replaced.

The 21-member monitoring team comprises Afghan experts in constitutional and customary law and U.N officials.