But Washington rightly will not accept an interim coalition that includes Najibullah and other key leaders of his party.

You write that Washington will not accept an interim coalition that incudes leaders of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

While Washington demands the unessential, Islamabad asks the unachievable - the formation of an interim coalition regime before the pullout begins.

But there was no agreement on the other crucial aspect to a settlement: the makeup of an interim coalition to oversee the Vietnamese withdrawal and to prepare for national elections.

U.N. mediators who have helped shape the withdrawal agreement might be go-betweens in shaping an interim coalition.

Now, President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and other Pakistani leaders say there must be an interim coalition in Kabul to oversee a Russian pullout.

For example, it is conveniently argued that young Khmer Rouge leaders, supposedly untainted by Pol Pot, would be acceptable in an interim coalition.

Her approach would put the onus for prolonging the war on Moscow if it insisted that its man in Kabul, Najibullah, must serve in an interim coalition.

No party gained a large enough majority to form a government, but conservatives and Communists, though longtime enemies here, joined in an interim coalition to prosecute the departing Socialist Government.

Opposing factions including the Khmer Rouge finally agreed to a ceasefire last October, and formed a four-party interim coalition, with each component administering its own territory.