A pullout, with conditions, receives Afghan backing

Afghanistan is willing to set a timetable for the total withdrawal of Soviet troops - provided it has guarantees against intervention from across its borders.

That was the verdict of the Soviet ambassador to Pakistan, in an interview with the Muslim, an Islamabad daily. It quoted Ambassador Vitaly Smirnov as saying the main problem was to get international guarantees that there would be no intervention from across Afghanistan's borders. Some friends of Pakistan did not want a settlement of the Afghan conflict, he added.