"The ideal result of the Bonn talks will be to initiate a mechanism that could help shape the course of all future politics in Afghanistan, Mohammad Gailani, the leader of the Association for Peace and National Unity of Afghanistan (APNUA), told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday.

The chairman of the foreign relations committee of the Great National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, Shahzada Masood, told IRIN that the Bonn gathering was the first step towards the implementation of the Security Council resolution drafted by Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Afghanistan.

"People need to understand that the Bonn meeting is not attempting to form a government, and any expectation in that regard would be expecting too much," he said. It was, however, to be an attempt initiate a journey to that end.

In the context of the fluid situation in Afghanistan, most Afghans are demanding greater security as a prerequisite for the implemention of any agreement in Bonn. "We have demanded that Kabul and other major cities of Afghanistan should be demilitarised, with the international community looking after their security," Gailani said.

Asked what needed to be done, Masood said: "In the formation of a transitional government, we should look for a maximum number of experts and technocrats. Once they establish a system in the war-torn country, a permanent Loya Jirgah [supreme national tribal assembly] could settle the fundamental questions of power sharing at the end of the transitional period," he added.

Gailani stressed that the abstention of the top-level factional leaders from Bonn conference should not be viewed with pessimism. "The advantage of sending representatives is that any deadlock can be broken by the top leadership, and the peace process will move forward," he explained.

"The talks should at least result in demilitarising Kabul and other major Afghan cities," Masood demanded. He expressed hope that the meeting could agree on a mechanism to call an emergency Loya Jirgah under the leadership of the former Afghan king, Mohammad Zahir Shah.

Due to start on Tuesday, the Bonn meeting will be attended by four Afghan factions and various individuals. The Northern Alliance - a loose coalition of warring factions - will send the largest delegation with 11 representatives headed by its interior minister, Yunus Qanuni.

The Rome Process, a peace movement rallying round the former king, has sent an eight-member delegation headed by his grandson, Mustafa Zahir, and includes two prominent Afghan women's rights activists - Runa Mansuri and Sima Wali. This delegation has members from all ethnic groups in Afghanistan.

Another Afghan diaspora peace group - the Cyprus Process - has sent a three-member delegation led by Homayun Jarir, an ethnic Tajik and son-in-law of the hardliner former Mujahidin leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

The Pakistan-based APNUA, also known as the Peshawar group, has sent a four-member delegation, along with many advisers. Dr Anwarul Haq Ahadi, a professor of political science in the United States and head of the Afghan Millat political party, is one of its most visible delegates.

Badshah Khan Zadran, governor of Khowst in eastern Afghanistan and Hamid Karzai, an influential Pashtun leader from the southern Kandahar province, are being invited in their respective individual capacities as tribal elders.