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Karzai, who was inaugurated on 7 December, said he is consulting with legal experts on how best to deal with constitutional requirements stipulating that ministers should possess higher educations and may not hold non-Afghan citizenship. "I am working carefully to form a clean and efficient cabinet; therefore, I do not think it is important whether the cabinet is announced today or tomorrow," Karzai said. "A reliable and trustworthy cabinet and a cabinet based on the will of the people is what we seek." Karzai's cabinet selections are generally regarded by many observers as his first major test since winning the 9 October presidential election (for more on the issue, see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 8 December 2004).

A day later on 20 December, Karzai issued a decree appointing Abdul Salam Azimi as his adviser for legal and legislative affairs, Radio Afghanistan reported. It is unclear whether Azimi might be directly involved in sorting out legal issues surrounding possible cabinet members. Azimi is a former member the Constitutional Drafting Committee who also served as chancellor of Kabul University.

In line with Karzai's comments on 19 December, Afghan government spokesman Jawed Ludin told reporters on 21 December the Afghan president will select members of his cabinet in line with the stipulations of the Afghan Constitution, the official Bakhtar News Agency reported.

Ludin specifically mentioned the first and second paragraphs of Article 72 of the constitution, which require cabinet ministers to "have only the citizenship of Afghanistan" and suggest they "should have higher education, work experience, and a good reputation." Karzai is still working on the composition of his cabinet, Ludin added.

However, Ludin hinted that some cabinet appointees might have dual citizenship, and the National Assembly would have the power to either accept or reject their nomination, Afghan Voice Agency reported on 21 December.

The constitution states that "should a nominee for a ministerial post also hold the citizenship of another country," the National Assembly "shall have the right to confirm or reject his or her nomination." However, the National Assembly is not scheduled to come into existence until at least April. According to Afghan Voice Agency, Ludin said that cabinet appointees will presumably influence the assembly's composition, since they will precede the formation of the National Assembly.

President Karzai "indirectly acknowledged the appointment of Mohammad Yunos Qanuni as the defense minister" during his 19 December news conference, according to state broadcaster Radio Afghanistan. But the station did not elaborate on how Karzai discussed Qanuni's possible appointment. Qanuni placed a distant second to Karzai in the presidential election, but the ethnic Tajik took a majority of votes in several key, Tajik-inhabited provinces in which Karzai's first vice president, Ahmad Zia Mas'ud, had been expected to attract many voters. Qanuni served as defense minister during the mujahedin government in the 1990s and was Karzai's interior and later education minister in the post-Taliban transitional government.

Kabul daily "Anis" urged in a 20 December editorial that Karzai avoid bowing to pressures in forming his cabinet of ministers. Lamenting the fact that "backward and developing countries" do not have control over their national sovereignty, the daily wrote that Afghans liberated their country from Soviet occupation "with the assistance" of "foreign friends" who, while providing assistance to reform Afghanistan's "political and economic life," are also "trying to participate" in the country's "political system through their representatives."

"Anis" cited rumors that "various donor countries, influential individuals, and those who were defeated" in the October presidential election "are exerting pressure" on the president to form "a coalition" by "establishing a cabinet that includes powerful people who are not the nation's representatives." The editorial concludes with a call for Karzai to use his "legal authority" to implement his "own policies in a courageous and steadfast" manner and to avoid being swayed by either external or internal forces.