By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 16, 2002; Page A18

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 15 -- The Afghan president and his defense minister, political and ethnic rivals whose relations have grown tense in recent weeks, have told the public and visiting U.S. officials over the past several days that they are cooperating fully on vital issues, especially on building a new national army.

In a national radio speech tonight, President Hamid Karzai praised the defense chief, Mohammed Fahim, for making recent "comments that give hope" to the importance of creating a broad-based, unified army and of disarming all regional militias, including Fahim's.

A spokesman for Fahim, meanwhile, said today that the defense minister is a "hard-working patriot" who has "friendly" relations with Karzai and "takes very seriously" domestic and international demands that the Afghan government establish security in this fractious country by forging an army that bridges its ethnic and regional divides. He said Fahim plans to meet with journalists Saturday to outline his views on these issues.

"After 23 years of fighting in Afghanistan, we do have enemies who want to undermine the relationship, but there has been no dispute between [Fahim and Karzai]. They work together every day," said Col. Mir Jan, Fahim's spokesman.

Fahim, who commands the loyalty of thousands of troops, is leader of the Northern Alliance militia, a largely ethnic Tajik force based in the Panjshir Valley of northern Afghanistan that fought the Taliban movement for five years and helped U.S. forces topple it in November.

Karzai, a leader of the dominant Pashtun ethnic group, was chosen to be Afghanistan's first post-Taliban leader by a U.N.-brokered conference that also made Fahim defense chief and put some of his Panjshir Valley-based allies in charge of key ministries. Karzai has no troops under his direct control and has relied on a multinational peacekeeping force in Kabul to secure his authority.

Last month, after another senior Pashtun leader, Vice President Abdul Qadir, was assassinated by unknown gunmen in Kabul, Karzai abruptly replaced his palace guards from the Defense Ministry with U.S. Special Forces. Later he demanded that Fahim replace some senior Panjshiri defense officials with men from other ethnic groups.

Fahim, who is said to believe that he and his allies deserve a large share of power because of their fight against the Taliban and against occupying Soviet forces in the 1980s, reportedly was angered by these displays of independence and possible mistrust on Karzai's part, and there were reports of confrontations between the two.

The signs of growing tension between the two senior officials alarmed the Bush administration, which supports Karzai politically but relies on Fahim's troops and largely autonomous regional militia leaders in its effort to hunt down and eliminate remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

These concerns, as well as persistent problems with the U.S.-backed program to build a multi-ethnic army, prompted Bush to send his special envoy to the region, Zalmay Khalilzad, to Kabul this week for meetings with Karzai and Fahim.

On Wednesday, Khalilzad told Afghan journalists that both officials had assured him they were cooperating on key issues and that he was cautiously reassured by the meetings. He said that "presently relations are good" between Karzai and Fahim. "If they were bad in the past, now they have improved. . . . I was reassured by both," he said.

"Fahim is saying all the right things, and Karzai says [Fahim] is doing all the right things," a U.S. official said this week. He said Fahim had "become more positive" in his attitude toward building a national army and that he "now sees multiple armies as more of a problem and a national army as more of a solution. That is a change," the official said.

Some Afghan sources said Fahim and his allies feared that the creation of such an army would undermine their power, and that as a result the Defense Ministry has not cooperated fully with the project. The training program has been slower than hoped. Only 1,200 recruits have graduated so far, and the ministry has reportedly stacked the selection process in cooperation with regional militia leaders, while paying lip service to the concept of a broad-based force loyal to the central government.

"It is very hard to change attitudes and create a professional army just by physical training," said an Afghan who observes the military closely. "These men need to live and suffer and fight together before they can bond. They need to have it drilled into them every day that their loyalty is to the nation, not to one militia or another."

But Jan, Fahim's spokesman, said the defense minister was seriously committed to creating a multi-ethnic force dedicated to national defense rather than regional or personal allegiances and that he had devised a detailed plan that addresses such concerns. The government has also set up an advisory commission to oversee the army-building process, and Fahim has met with it several times.

"If we have been slow, it is because we lacked financial support from the international community," Jan said.

Some Afghans familiar with military politics here said they remained unconvinced that Fahim has genuinely changed, but other officials who have attended recent cabinet meetings with Fahim and Karzai said the two men seemed to work well together and have common concerns about the country.

"I have seen no animosity or tension," said Deputy Foreign Minister Rahim Sherzoy. "They come from different clans, and they don't know each other personally, but from what I have seen they are both committed to ending the insecurity and suffering of Afghans after so many years of war."