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Karzai hopeful for peaceful transition

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Hamid Karzai, the Pashtun tribal leader named interim prime minister in the planned transitional government for Afghanistan, has said he expects a peaceful transition of power.

Speaking from Kandahar where he met Taliban leaders face-to-face Wednesday, Karzai said he was also expecting a peaceful negotiated handover of the city.

"I am very hopeful for a very quick result," Karzai told CNN, adding that negotiations would continue Thursday.

The transfer of power from Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani to Karzai is scheduled for December 22 in Kabul.

When asked whether he would accept the transfer of power in the capital if Kandahar had not fallen by that date, Karzai said he was confident it would fall.

"I think it will fall, there will be a transfer of power by peaceful means," he said.

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Karzai, who fought the Soviet Union during their occupancy in the 1980s, returned to Afghanistan in October and rallied Pashtun tribes in southern Afghanistan to oppose the Taliban.

He served as deputy foreign minister in Afghanistan from 1992 to 1994 following the defeat of the Soviets.

In 1997 he began campaigning against the Taliban, claiming the movement was manipulated by Pakistan and Arab extremists.

Now he has been chosen to lead Afghanistan in the post-Taliban interim after delegates at a U.N.-brokered meeting agreed he was the one to head the new administration.

Four Afghan factions at the talks in Bonn, Germany signed a landmark accord Wednesday to set up a post-Taliban government in Afganistan representing a broad range of ethnic groups and regions.

The agreement establishes a 29-member interim cabinet headed by Karzai, meant as the first step toward a broad-based government representing the range of Afghanistan's ethnic groups and regions.

Karzai praised the Afghan people for putting their trust in him.

"I think the brave move of the United Front to transfer power will be acceptable for the people of Afghanistan and the international community," he told CNN.

He said he has had "cordial relations" with Rabbani and did not anticipate any problems in the handover of power from the Northern Alliance leader.

"I have not had strained relations with President Rabbani in the past," Karzai said.

"And the transfer of power, I hope very much that it will be one in the interests of the afghan people, one that will keep our country good forever."