1.  At the U.N.-sponsored conference in Bonn, four Afghan groups had been negotiating for nine days to form a transitional government to rule for six months.

2.  After a week of difficult negotiations in Germany, representatives of several main Afghan groups have tentatively agreed to a plan for a temporary coalition government.

3.  Bush should patiently pursue the current plan of convening a conference of all the diverse Afghan groups, attended by envoys of the aged former King Mohammed Zahir Shah.

4.  But the Afghan group argued that women will make headway in Afghanistan only if other nations put strong, up-front conditions on aid to Kabul.

5.  Pashtuns comprise the main Afghan ethnic group in a country whose ethnic stew never stops boiling.

6.  Some reports said the Americans may have been deliberately fed bad intelligence about the convoy by a rival Afghan group.

7.  Stufflebeem told reporters that targets near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan were bombed to support opposition Afghan groups operating in that area.

8.  Special Operations forces are accustomed to working with the Afghan groups and would be less obtrusive than several hundred members of the Marines or Army.

9.  Staff with Oxfam, an aid agency, and Afghan de-mining groups complained that children were lured by the bright colors into minefields and other dangerous areas.

10.  The Afghan groups receive tactical training by the Iranians, who number three or four, they said.