Some 60 to 70 delegates, frustrated over what they said was the lack of a free vote over the country's future, left the meeting on the second day of deliberations between around 1,600 people from a myriad of ethnic groups across Afghanistan.

"There are lively and heated debates about the roles of both Zaher Shah and Karzai, with some delegates defending them and others opposing", a  European diplomat told Iran Press Service, noting that this is the first time that Afghans are experiencing a kind of democracy.

Many delegates, among them some warlords had pressed for the former Shah to recover his position, and warned there could be bloodshed if he didn't win.

Firmly endorsed by the former Afghan King, the 87 years-old Mohammad Zaher Shah, Mr. Karzai is also supported by both Iran and the United States as well as the United Nations, which sponsored the meeting of four Afghan groups in Bonn, Germany, last November at which they agreed to nominated him as interim Prime Minister for six months and the convention of the present grand assembly of the elders, or Loya Jirga.

The confirmation of Mr. Karzai, who like the former Monarch, belongs to the majority Poshtoon ethnic became a foregone conclusion after former president Borhaneddin Rabbani withdrew his candidacy. The only remaining contender Mrs. Mas’ooda Jalal, a female employee of the World Food Program, is not expected to mount a serious challenge although her candidacy marks a major step after years of discrimination against women by the Taleban.

"We came into Kabul as warriors, as conquerors. We had full control of the city" Rabbani said, referring to the takeover of Kabol by his Northern Alliance fighters in November. "But we made concessions then for the best interest of the country. And now we do this again''.

The presence of 140 female delegates -- most of them appointed -- in the Loya Jirga, until now a men's only assembly, is regarded as the most striking feature of the Afghanistan to come, a secular nation where, despite Islamic laws, women would have equal rights to men, analysts pointed out.

A major challenge for the new Administration will be representing Afghanistan's many fractured ethnic groups -- such as the Pashtoons, Shi’ites, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks.

Some hostility among the groups remains, even though those who formed the interim council in Germany last year tried to balance the factions and create a multi-ethnic government.

Pashtoons have complained of discrimination and of being sidelined by Northern Alliance figures and there is a long history of bloodshed between the communities.

To help Mr. Karzai to present a more balanced government, Mr. Yoones Qanooni, the interim Interior Minister unexpectedly resigned his post during an intervention to the opening ceremonies on Tuesday and sources said Foreign Minister Abdollah Abdollah was also likely to quit.

The international community is hoping the Loya Jirga can bring peace and stability to an Afghanistan impoverished by decades of foreign occupation, conflict and chaos.

Witnesses and police said the German troops, from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), fought with the bodyguards Mr. Wali Mas’ood, Afghanistan’s ambassador to London and a brother of the late Ahmad Shah Mas’ood who was assassinated on 9 September by Arab terrorists hired by Al Qa’eda, the group widely suspected to have mastermind the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington D.C.

The present Emergency Loya Jirga is the first in nearly a quarter century and carries on a consultative system that Afghans have used for more than 1,000 years to settle affairs of the nation.

The Emergency Loya Jirga was inaugurated with a delay of 24 hours Tuesday by Zaher Shah, who, in his inaugural speech, which was hardly audible, reiterated once again that he do not seek the restoration of the Monarchy or any role in the future of the war-shattered Asian nation.

Delegates today threatened to walk out from Afghanistan's Loya Jirga assembly in fury at an announcement from the ex-king that he would not be a candidate for head of state following pressure from Washington.

In his opening address, made in both Farsi and Pashtoon languages, Mr. Karzai, smartly dressed in Afghan tribal dress and a large, colourful turban covering his head, warmly praised the ailing, 87 years-old Zaher Shah, whom, he said, as the "baba", or father of the nation, could help fostering national unity and reconciliation among all Afghan warring factions, most of them present at the Loya Jirga.

"He almost introduced Zaher Shah as King, but without throne", one Iranian Afghan watcher said, commenting Mr.

"Today, the 11th of June 2002, in Kabol, the capital, the heart of Afghanistan, we have a message - a message of national unity, a message of peace, a message of reconstruction," Head of the Loya Jirga Independent Committee; Mr. Qasim Yar told the delegations in welcoming remarks.