ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON, 2 October — The Taliban’s days in power appeared numbered yesterday as it loosened their iron rule in three provinces in a dramatic move to quash growing support for exiled King Muhammad Zahir Shah.

Taleban scrambled to shore up its political support and rally its troops as it braced for an attack by US forces bent on striking a blow against global terrorism.

Opposition groups, meanwhile, stepped up preparations to claim power from the Taleban, which has defied demands to surrender Osama Bin Laden as a prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist assault on the United States. The moves came as the White House strongly suggested it may provide military and financial support to the opposition and the world community gathered at the United Nations to reaffirm its determination to eradicate terrorism.

Three weeks after the murderous attacks on New York and Washington, the Taleban were increasingly isolated and showing the first cracks in their support base in their seven-year quest to create a pure Islamic state. A Taleban official said the militia had decided to give tribal and community elders a role in governing the key southeastern provinces of Khost, Paktika and Paktia bordering Pakistan. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the militia seemed to be losing its grip on power as the opposition agreed to call an emergency Loya Jirga, or assembly of tribal chiefs, to “elect a head of state and transitional government”.

Musharraf, leader of the only country to recognize the Taleban and who caused division in his own country by siding with the United States, added: “Because of the stand that the Taleban have taken ... confrontation will take place.” Asked if the regime’s days were numbered, Musharraf said: “It appears so.”

The fate of the Taleban has never looked more perilous, with signs of dissent at home, the opposition nipping at their front lines and the world’s most modern military machine on their doorstep. The former king announced yesterday in Rome a landmark pact with the main opposition Northern Alliance aimed at ousting the Taleban and installing a moderate government in Kabul.

Should the Taleban fall, momentum appeared to be building for Zahir Shah to act as a neutral figure overseeing a transition of power in the poor and rugged country of 24 million people. “I am convinced that the agreement we have reached today will be the start of a new era for Afghanistan,” said Younus Qanooni, the head of the Northern Alliance delegation. Diplomats and Afghans say that Zahir Shah is the only figure with the authority to assemble a broad anti-Taleban front.

The likelihood of US-led strikes on Afghanistan appeared closer yesterday after the Taleban defied US demands to hand over Osama Bin Laden. The United States consolidated its military might in the region after the Taleban openly spurned Washington’s ultimatum to give up the man it says is prime suspect for suicide air attacks on US cities nearly three weeks ago or face the consequences.

For the first time since the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, which left more than 7,000 dead or missing, the Taleban said on Sunday they were holding Bin Laden and hiding him in secret for his own safety. This blunt statement raised the stakes in the standoff.

Taleban Defense Minister Obaidulla rallied his troops in the area yesterday, urging Taleban fighters near the Pakistani border to “fight with all your might” against any foreign aggressors. “You should fight with all your might against any attack and defend your country. Our enemy is powerful but our God is the strongest of all,” AIP quoted him as saying.

Bush also laid out military preparations to punish the authors of terror strikes and said efforts to bring terrorists to justice and freeze their assets were already paying off. “We’re slowly but surely bringing them to justice. We’re slowly but surely calling their hand and reining them in,” said Bush.

The president said US authorities had caught a “known terrorist” tied to the Sept. 5, 1986, hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Pakistan that left two US citizens dead and would charge him with murder. “He’s not affiliated with (Bin Laden’s) Al-Qaeda, yet he’s an example of the wider war on terrorism and what we intend to do,” Bush said in a speech to employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.