Bhutto Calls for Coalition Government in Afghanistan
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BEIJING — Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said Saturday that power in Afghanistan should be handed over rapidly to a broad-based interim government.
At a banquet in which Chinese Premier Li Peng welcomed her to Beijing on her first official trip abroad as prime minister, she said the ongoing Soviet withdrawal showed “the futility of foreign military intervention.”
Li praised Pakistan’s role in the Afghan conflict and said China also hopes for a “broadly based coalition government acceptable to all concerned.”
Bhutto is in China for talks expected to seek a joint strategy on Afghanistan, where both countries have been major backers of rebels fighting the Soviet-backed government.
Pakistan has sheltered about 3 million Afghan refugees who fled their country after the Soviet intervention in 1979. Pakistan has also allowed Afghan rebel groups to operate there.
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