INTERVIEW - Karzai victory will destablise Afghanistan - rival

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - A second term for President Hamid Karzai would further destabilise Afghanistan because he has chosen a coalition of antagonistic former military leaders, a rival candidate in the Aug. 20 poll said on Wednesday.

Hedayat Amin Arsala, a former World Bank official who was once Karzai's boss, is seen as one of few among a field of 41 candidates who can possibly challenge Karzai, who has ruled Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.

Arsala is a former senior minister who served as one of Karzai's deputies for two years until 2004. Like Karzai, he is a member of the majority Pashtun tribe, giving him a key edge over candidates from other minority ethnic groups.

Some factional leaders have pledged to support Karzai in return for government positions should he retain power.

Arsala said Karzai's choice of coalition partners was a cause of great concern for Afghanistan, where militant violence has hit its highest level since 2001 despite the increasing numbers of U.S. and NATO-led troops, which stand at almost 90,000.

"All of us should be concerned. The international community also should be concerned, because let us face it, they want stability in this country and after stability they would like to leave, but do not want to leave unsuccessfully," Arsala said.

"Have we agreed on where we are going? Where Afghanistan is going to, or is it just about distributing ministries without a cohesive sort of approach to solving Afghanistan's problems?" he told Reuters in an interview.

Karzai, who won Afghanistan's first direct poll in 2004, had been seen as weak and vulnerable earlier this year and also attracted criticism from Washington for his handling of the fight against the Taliban resurgence.