BONN/KABUL, 4 December — Afghan rivals inched toward a UN-backed accord to set up a post-Taleban government yesterday focusing on who gets what job in the interim authority. A significant step came when the leader of the Northern Alliance agreed that a key ally of the exiled former king could be among the candidates for leader of this transitional administration.

The royalist ally, Abdul Sattar Sirat, an Uzbek who was Afghan justice minister in the 1970s, is seen as the front runner to head the interim executive council that is meant to run the country until spring.

The idea is that in spring the loya jirga, the traditional gathering of tribal and political leaders, would choose a government to oversee Afghanistan until elections in two years.

Sirat is one of four names on a list of nominees accepted by the Northern Alliance chief, Burhanuddin Rabbani. The others are Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun tribal leader; a former president, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi; and Pir Ahmad Gailani, a Pashtun leader.

The head of the Northern Alliance delegation at the talks in Germany, Younis Qanuni, told Reuters: “I think we are very close to a final agreement.”

Meanwhile, a draft accord presented by the United Nations to rival Afghan groups meeting in Germany provides for a six-month interim authority, a symbolic role for the former king and demilitarization of Kabul, according to the latest copy of the draft obtained by AFP yesterday.

According to the UN blueprint on how to transfer of power to a post-Taleban administration, Afghanistan’s new interim authority would be headed by a 29-member Cabinet-style administration.

The Cabinet will be presided over by a chairman, five deputies and 23 other members. Decisions will be made by consensus or by majority vote, as long as 21 members are present. If the vote is split equally, the chairman hold the deciding vote.

The draft also provides for a supreme court to exercise judicial power on laws provided for under Afghanistan’s old 1964 constitution, and independent human rights and civil service commissions.

A Northern Alliance source in Bonn told AFP earlier that Afghan groups at talks in Germany had agreed on a UN-brokered power-sharing deal and will sign it here today.

“A complete agreement has been reached. It will be signed tomorrow,” the source who asked not to be named said yesterday.

A diplomatic source close to the talks also confirmed that the final draft of a seven-page text, which envisages among other things an interim administration for Afghanistan, had been finalized.

He, however, said that details of some amendments still had to be incorporated into a clean text in English, Pashto and Dari.

The Northern Alliance source said it had been agreed that the royalists would head the interim administration for six months.

The three other groups negotiating for the last seven days near Bonn — the powerful Northern Alliance and the Cyprus and Peshawar groups — would have the other ministries, he said.

“They (the ex-king’s entourage) will head the government. The ministries will be given to the Northern Alliance and the other groups according to their weights,” the Northern Alliance source said.