As a Pashtun, the Afghan ethnic group dominant in the Taliban, Commander Haq was seen as someone who might have managed to win over tribal elders and form an effective anti-Taliban coalition.

They are all members of the Northern Alliance, the anti-Taliban coalition that received strong Russian support long before Sept. 11 made the alliance Washington's natural partner in Afghanistan.

Since the attacks, the administration has stepped up contacts with the Northern Alliance, a loose anti-Taliban coalition that controls 10 percent of Afghanistan.

That seemed like a reference to the Northern Alliance, a loose anti-Taliban coalition that controls only about 10 percent of Afghanistan.

He has pleaded not guilty, asserting that he believed he was fighting the anti-Taliban coalition known as the Northern Alliance, not Americans.

The difficulties in forcing a broad anti-Taliban coalition, however, do not stem only from Washington.

In the wake of the World Trade Center attacks, Mr. Bush welcomed China's cooperation in bringing Pakistan into an anti-Taliban coalition and obtaining a strong United Nations resolution on terrorism.

Even though the Bush administration has been quietly encouraging the effort to form a broad anti-Taliban coalition around the former king, the statement asserts that Washington was not taking sides about who should lead the fractious nation.

Twelve Russian military cargo planes carried equipment and troops to Afghanistan today in what President Vladimir V. Putin called a new stage in Russia's cooperation with the American-led anti-Taliban coalition.

Washington's efforts to encourage an anti-Taliban coalition are coming in the midst of continuing military preparations.