Afghan warlord agrees to hand over his weapons to British team

Efforts to disarm the rival armed factions in Afghanistan produced a breakthrough yesterday as one of the most powerful warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostum, agreed in principle to give up his private army's weapons.

General Dostum's offer to surrender all of his heavy weaponry came after weeks of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations that had begun after bitter fighting between him and a rival commander, Ustad Atta Mohammed. The conflict had effectively derailed a United Nations-backed disarmament plan, and led to threats of resignation by the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai.

General Dostum is a feared figure in Afghanistan's recent history. He is reported to have frequently ordered the public executions of criminals, who were usually crushed to death under tanks. He negotiated the handover of tanks and artillery with a British military and diplomatic mission, which has based itself at Mazar-i-Sharif, the centre of the commander's northern fiefdom.

In return for agreeing to decommission his tanks and artillery, General Dostum is believed to have extracted significant concessions. The warlord, a former deputy defence minister, is expected to be restored to the cabinet and his power base in northern Afghanistan will receive millions of dollars in international aid. Both General Dostum and Atta had handed over parts of their armoury to the British-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) led by Col Dick Davis, following a ceasefire. But the latest agreement, settled after General Dostum extracted extensive concessions from the Kabul government, is seen by both sides as the first significant development on the question of decommissioning.

Immediately after concluding his talks with Col Davis, of the Royal Engineers, General Dostum flew to Kabul from Mazar in a RAF Hercules aircraft to meet President Karzai.

Government officials say the Dostum deal will be used as a blueprint to carry out disarmament negotiations with other warlords such as Ismail Khan in Herat and Gul Agha Sherzai in Kandahar. American PRT teams, similar to the British one at Mazar, have already arrived at both the cities.

The Afghan, American and British governments were anxious to conclude the accord with General Dostum before the country's constitutional Loya Jirga elections take place next week.

The deal is being welcomed by President Karzai's supporters as a turning point. Recently the American-sponsored interim leader has seen his credibility slip over his inability to control the warlords, the resurgence of Taliban in the Pashtun south, and neglect of Afghan reconstruction by the United States and Britain with their interests focused on Iraq. The United Nations Security Council was so concerned by the situation that last month a delegation of United Nations ambassadors - from Britain, France, Mexico, Spain and Bulgaria - visited Afghan cities including Mazar and Herat.

After the Dostum agreement, according to diplomatic sources, the Bush administration will in the next 48 hours officially congratulate President Karzai's "achievement" and declare this to be a new chapter in the history of post-Taliban Afghanistan.

In the official version, General Dostum has been forced to surrender his heavy armoury on the instructions of the Kabul government after taking part in some of the worst fighting since the fall of the Taliban.