The UN Secretary General's office today is looking for a new candidate for the post of UN special envoy in Afghanistan after Britain's Paddy Ashdown was forced to withdraw his candidacy in the face of Afghan opposition.

Ashdown had the public backing of both the United States and Britain. His appointement also reportedly had the initial approval of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But Karzai last week began to raise objections publicly to Ashdown at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

On Sunday (January 27), Ashdown announced that he had withdrawn his candidacy, telling the BBC that he lacked support from the Afghan government.

"I didn't ask to do this job. It was only with reluctance and after having been persuaded by the American government, and with the agreement of President Karzai at the time, and at the request of UN Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] that I agreed to do it. So I am delighted to be able to return to where I was when this job was first [suggested] in October last year -- my garden and my grandchildren."

Ashdown insists that Karzai changed his mind since they spoke about the job in late December. Ashdown says he thinks Karzai's decision was the result of internal politics in Afghanistan rather than problems in relations between Kabul and the international community.

"We can all speculate about why President Karzai has changed his mind. I went to see President Karzai before Christmas in Kuwait,” Ashdown said. “I wouldn't have dreamed of undertaking this job unless he agreed that I should do so. And after I saw the UN secretary-general, we shook hands on it -- albeit over a telephone. Now something has happened that has changed his view. I think that has far more to do with internal Afghan politics than it is with the international community."

Ali Ahmad Jalali, Karzai's former interior minister and a noted expert on Afghan diplomatic affairs, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan today that there were fears in Kabul about how much power Ashdown would have over decisions made by the government in Kabul.

In particular, Jalali says there were concerns that Ashdown would have powers over Kabul's decisions similar to the veto powers he excercised as the international community's high representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"I think there was a sense of mistrust in Afghanistan that Mr. Ashdown might come with some powers, which could have been considered as interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs. It was considered that he might have the same level of power that he previously had in Bosnia. In Bosnia, Ashdown had this competence to decide or give an idea over the appointment of government officials. But the situation in Afghanistan is different than Bosnia. As you know, there [is a tripartite presidency] within Bosnia at the moment. But Afghanistan has an elected president and an elected parliament. And the country is united," Jalali said.

Indeed, as the international community's high representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ashdown had dismissed Dragan Covic -- the Bosnia Croat politician who was elected in October 2002 to serve in the three-member presidency. Ashdown ordered the dismissal after Covic was indicted on charges of financial corruption.

But for his part, Ashdown rejects media reports that he sought powers over the Afghan government that would have changed the role of the UN envoy in Afghanistan to that of a "super envoy."

"I negotiated these mandates first off. And we've agreed them with [UN Secretary-General] Ban Ki-moon. It was never the case that I sought the same powers we had in Bosnia. And if they had been offered, I would have rejected them. The government of Afghanistan is a sovereign government. It is a proud nation. And President Karzai is its president. Our job was to assist the government in Afghanistan to do its job -- at President Karzai's request, initially. The job never contained either a demand from me or, indeed, any question of enjoying those powers that you had in Bosnia. It was all about coordinating the international community to support President Karzai. So the question of having the same powers as I had in Bosnia was never in question. And I would never have accepted it if it had been."

Ashdown says the powers he did insist upon would have given him greater ability to coordinate the work of different UN relief agencies within Afghanistan -- including the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, UNICEF (the UN children's fund), and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Reports say the next UN envoy will not have powers over NATO forces that are now in Afghanistan on a UN mandate to assist Karzai's government.

Amid the search for a new candidate, reports from Kabul say senior Afghan officials have expressed interest in another Briton -- General John McColl -- serving as the UN special envoy to Afghanistan. McColl led the first International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan and was Britain's special envoy for the counter narcotics effort there. McColl currently is NATO's deputy supreme commander in Europe.

(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Mustafa Sarwar contributed to this report from Prague.)