Once (and future?) Afghan king

Moreover, experts point out, the Afghan capital Kabul was torched and devastated far more under Northern Alliance commanders - than it ever was by Soviet troops.

"This looks like a clever move that is not so clever," says one european diplomat. "It looks like an effort to come up with some leader, any leader, and it may make things more divisive."

In addition, Pakistan, which has long backed the Taliban, and is distrustful of the Northern Alliance, is not likely to jump on this bandwagon.

To many ordinary Pakistanis, and in a part of the world that instinctively resists easy solutions, particularly those provided by the West, the idea seems slightly incredible if not farcical. Many Pashtuns see the king as representing a "puppet government," as one Peshawar-based source says.

"There is no doubt there will be a new government in Afghanistan sooner or later," says Shahid ur Rehman, a Pakistani journalist and author of books on the Pakistani elite, and the Pakistani nuclear program. "The Taliban may collapse, Kabul may fall. The best bet for that is a peaceful change within the Talibs. But Zahir Shah is being patterend as a candidate by the West," which Rehman describes as a distasteful imposition.

Analysts like Rehman say the king's strong point is his Pashtun ethnic heritage. The Pashtun peoples are the majority in Afghanistan, highly influential, and make up the bulk of the Taliban. The king's base of support, moreover, is in the southern city of Kandahar - current home of Taliban supreme overlord, Mullah Muhammad Omar.

"If there is a split in the Taliban," says Mr. Rehman, [the king] is a good man to speak to all sides. But my hunch is that the commanders in the field will not support him. They are not in favor of a man of this type. I don't see any possibility of it [a successful return of the king]," he adds.

The Northern Alliance controls about 10 percent of Afghanistan. And its role is considered vital to any effort by the king to return, because it contains large numbers of ethnic minorities, such as Tajiks and Uzbeks. Two Northern Alliance figures, Yunis Qanuni and Aref Khan Nurzai met with the king in Rome this weekend. But a Northern Alliance spokesman in Islamabad warned that Western nations' support for the king's return was "unacceptable."

Nonetheless, among some ordinary Afghans, the prospect of King Zahir Shah's return is a hopeful one. Omara Khan, an Afghan national who shuttles between Jalalabad and Peshawar working with Afghan landmine victims, says the people are "ready for a change."

"The Taliban, they have support of the people against the Northern Alliance, and the foreign invaders," says Mr. Khan, sipping cardamom-scented green tea in a hotel cafe. "But people are tired of fighting. If a third party or an Afghan leader, for example Zahir Shah, who is able to give stability, and get some peace, I'm sure the people will support him. What the Taliban is doing the people don't like. They don't like their policies. They don't like what they are doing, how they treat the people."

"Now the people will be able to support the king. He is a symbol of national unity," he adds, hopefully.

Scott Peterson in northern Afghanistan contributed to this report.

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