Karzai pleads for one more day to pick Afghan Cabinet

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The United States interceded Tuesday in the process of selecting a new Afghan government, telling President Hamid Karzai that his Cabinet must win the approval of the grand council. Karzai delayed announcing his lineup for another day.

With the council, or loya jirga, making little progress in deciding on a government, Karzai's spokesman, Tayyab Jawad, said Monday that the Cabinet members would not be submitted for approval to the council. That would avoid a potentially bitter floor fight.

However, President Bush's special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, said failure to win council approval would violate terms of a December agreement which established the formula for Afghanistan to rebuild institutions following the collapse of the Taliban.

"People are worried they came here for nothing," Khalilzad told reporters. "That's not right. The key personnel will be presented to the loya jirga and have to be approved by the loya jirga. Whoever says approval is not needed has spoken mistakenly. As the international community, we were involved in it, and we will insist on it."