101.   Karzai meanwhile continued to wrestle with security problems as rival warlords tried to fill the power vacuum left by the fall of the Taliban.

102.   Khost has also seen fighting between rival warlords recently, and it is unclear who has been firing in the vicinity of the coalition base.

103.   Karzai last Tuesday said several clashes between rival warlords in recent weeks had highlighted the need for a national army.

104.   On Saturday he meet representatives of rival warlords who clashed violently last week over who should be governor in eastern Paktia province.

105.   Ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani held talks Wednesday with a rival warlord over forging an anti-Taliban alliance, a faction spokesman said here.

106.   Paktia is notorious for lawlessness, with rival warlords fighting over the governorship of the province.

107.   Plans under consideration in Washington include expanding the ISAF into the provincial centres or using US forces to separate rival warlords.

108.   Representatives of the rival warlords were expected in Kabul on Friday for talks, AIP said.

109.   Rival Somali warlords Hussein Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed said Monday they had agreed to abolish the border dividing Mogadishu and remove roadblocks in the war-ravaged capital.

110.   Rival warlord Alhaji Kromah of the Mandingo wing of ULIMO also rejected the idea, as did another Krahn militia leader and Council of State member, George Boley.