British politician and former soldier Paddy Ashdown today withdrew from the contest to be United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan after Kabul said it favoured a British NATO commander for the post.
Violence in Afghanistan over the past two years has been the bloodiest since US-led forces ousted the Islamist Taliban and there have been calls for a high-level envoy to coordinate with the Afghan government and bodies such as NATO and the European Union.
However diplomats say Afghan President Hamid Karzai is wary that a powerful "super-envoy", particularly one from former colonial power Britain, might make his government appear weaker than it already is.
"This job can only be done successfully on the basis of a consensus within the international community and the clear support of the government of Afghanistan," Mr Ashdown said in a statement today.
"It is clear to me that, in Afghanistan at least, the support necessary to do the job effectively does not exist."
Yesterday, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations Zahir Tanin said Kabul wanted a British NATO commander, General John McColl, to become the UN envoy rather than Ashdown.
Today, Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said the government favoured either McColl or Turkish politician Hekmat Cetin for the post. Mr Cetin served as NATO's civil envoy for the country in recent years.
"The government's disagreement on Ashdown is not regarding his nationality but is about his authorities and responsibilities," Spanta told a news conference in Kabul.
A Western source close to talks over the post said earlier this month that Ashdown, the former UN High Representative and EU special envoy for Bosnia, had agreed with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take the job.