By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press Writer

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan - The head of the Afghan government opposed to the Taliban militia that controls most of the country said Thursday that his small forces remain the key to defeating the Taliban, even as international forces unleash their military might.

Burhanuddin Rabbani, whom most foreign governments recognize as Afghanistan's legitimate president, also said the U.S.-led airstrikes that began this week had not changed his forces' fundamental strategy in fighting the Taliban.

Rabbani, who is head of the loosely knit Afghan opposition northern alliance, indicated that his government regards psychological and moral pressure as critical to defeating the Taliban.

"We have to point out that the key to carrying out this war, the main key to carrying out this war, is in the hands of the united front of the Islamic State of Afghanistan," as his government is known, Rabbani said at a news conference in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

The forces fighting the Taliban are estimated to number no more than 15,000, about a third of the Taliban's apparent military manpower. They have only a few score armored vehicles at their disposal and a small number of heavy artillery pieces.

Anti-Taliban officials have been buoyed by the international airstrikes and have promised that new offensives against the Taliban were in the works. But, Rabbani said, "we are not now undertaking any new programs. We are going along with the programs that we carried out earlier."

"We would like to take this moment to appeal to the people who are under control of the enemy to lay down their arms and to come over to our side," Rabbani said.

Washington-based envoys for the northern alliance said Wednesday that they do not want to capture the capital Kabul too quickly in order to keep from provoking ethnic Pashtun leaders in the south. The northern alliance represents ethnic minorities including Tajiks and Uzbeks.

Haron Amin, the alliance's envoy in Washington, said he was calling on the United Nations, and specifically the United States, to come up with a plan to ensure that Kabul is demilitarized, so that a loya jirga, or a gathering of tribal leaders to select a new head of state, eventually can be held in "an atmosphere of peace and security."

A senior Pakistani official in Islamabad told The Associated Press on Thursday that there is a "convergence of views" between Washington and Islamabad that the northern alliance should not enter Kabul until a post-Taliban government is in place.

It was unclear whether Rabbani would be the unchallenged leader of a hypothetical post-Taliban Afghanistan. Support appears to be rising for former Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah and the opposition is fragmented otherwise.

In Rome, Zaher Shah appealed to his countrymen to "unite for peace and democracy" and said the West could help them. He said that the day when he can return to his turbulent homeland would be one of "great joy."

Anti-Taliban officials have contended repeatedly that much of the Taliban's support comes from people who are under duress and that there would be substantial defections if the Taliban appeared to be losing ground.

"We don't want a long continuation of the war. We don't want the peaceful population to suffer," Rabbani said. "Since the international community has decided to fight against international terrorism, then we hope that this war in Afghanistan will be short."

He and other opposition figures have stressed repeatedly that they support the international anti-terrorism campaign on the condition that it does not cause suffering among civilians.

They have not clarified how a war could be waged without civilian casualties, and their insistence on the issue may be aimed at deflecting criticism that Rabbani's own regime was brutal.

Rabbani and other opposition leaders have been discredited because of the anarchy that swept Afghanistan when they were in power, including the destruction of much of the capital, Kabul, and the killing of an estimated 50,000 people, mostly civilians.

Officials also appear eager to avoid any potential backlash against the anti-Taliban opposition if it appears to be aligned with the U.S.-led coalition bombing of Afghanistan.

"Our military affairs are independent," Rabbani said.

Rabbani, a 61-year-old Islamic scholar and poet, was driven from Kabul in 1996 by the Taliban and has largely lived in exile since.

Rabbani said Wednesday that representatives of all Afghanistan's tribes should help decide the nation's fate, "everybody except terrorists and those who are up to their elbows in blood."