By GEOFF CUMMING and AGENCIES
Remnants of the Taleban clung to strongholds at opposite ends of Afghanistan last night as international fears of a power vacuum grew after the regime's swift retreat from Kabul.
In the northern city of Kunduz, 2000 to 3000 foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden vowed to fight on although surrounded by Northern Alliance troops. "They are desperate - they've seen what happens to Arabs when the Northern Alliance gets hold of them," said an alliance spokesman.
Alliance commander General Daoud said his forces wanted to persuade low-ranking Afghan Taleban in Kunduz to surrender.
"For the foreign terrorists ... there will be no negotiations, we will not deal with them, they are killers," said Daoud.
In the south, the Taleban clung to control of the movement's birthplace, Kandahar.
Opposition leader Hamid Karzai said there was "turmoil" there; other sources said local Pashtun tribesmen surrounded the city.
A US official said there were bursts of fighting near the city centre as the Pashtun fighters advanced.
Pakistan strengthened its border defences closest to Kandahar with tanks and extra troops, worried that Taleban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda forces could spill across the frontier.
American Delta Force and Green Beret troops were reported to be in the mountainous region between Kabul and Kandahar, stopping travellers in the hope of gaining information about the whereabouts of bin Laden and his allies.
Taleban leaders have reportedly been killed in US air strikes on private houses in Kabul and Kandahar.
Papers found in homes abandoned by bin Laden supporters included diagrams of an attack on a skyscraper drawn up before the September 11 suicide strikes on New York and Washington.
The Arab occupants studied how to make explosives and bombs, and other sabotage techniques.
Kabul is being ruled by a high military council led by Northern Alliance Defence Minister General Fahim Khan.
Critics of the alliance are worried the motley coalition of former mujahideen leaders may try to cling to power, freezing out Pashtuns, Shi'ites and other groups.
Factions in the Northern Alliance have already split the capital along ethnic lines - a sign Kabul could be reverting to the patchwork divisions that sparked civil war when the same groups took over from the Soviet-installed government in 1992.
But the alliance said it had no desire to cling to power and would govern the capital until a broad-based government was formed.
Senior spokesman Mohammad Habeel said a new government could be set up either by a traditional Loya Jirga - a grand assembly of tribal chiefs and elders - or by holding elections.
The United Nations is trying to convene talks next week on such a broad-based government.
Francisco Vendrell, UN deputy special envoy for Afghanistan, will travel to Kabul to invite alliance leaders to the conference in the United Arab Emirates.
He said the UN was convinced exiled Afghan king Zahir Shah would have a role to play in any post-Taleban government.
The overwhelming majority of Afghan refugees who had reached the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar backed the former monarch's return, he said.
Meanwhile, several US allies said they could deploy troops within days to secure humanitarian efforts.
Britain, France and Canada offered a total of several thousand troops. Support also came from Muslim nations Jordan, Turkey and Indonesia.
The Red Cross and UN have begun to resume aid operations with the Taleban's retreat, but relief workers face continuing threats from lawlessness and looting.
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Links: War against terrorism
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
Noose tightens around Taleban
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