Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon withdrew formally as a candidate for a senior United Nations post in Afghanistan yesterday after President Karzai changed his mind and made clear that he did not want him after all.

The last-minute failure of the plan to install him as “super-envoy” was greeted with dismay and surprise by diplomats and aid officials in Kabul.

It also threatened to undermine Britain’s relations with Afghanistan, where 7,800 British troops are deployed as part of a Nato mission to bolster President Karzai’s authority.

The new job had been expected to concentrate on coordinating the troubled Western mission and improving liaison with the Kabul Government.

Lord Ashdown said that President Karzai had supported his candidacy initially, but then changed his view because of internal Afghan politics.

He said: “One of the reasons why I have withdrawn is because I think it is important that Britain’s relations with Afghanistan should get back on to an even keel.” The former Liberal Democrat leader told the BBC. “When you generate these kinds of feelings in a country like Afghanistan, that can cost lives and I wouldn’t want to be the instrument of that.”

Before The Times reported President Karzai’s change of mind on Saturday, the job had seemed a certainty. Lord Ashdown had held a secret meeting with the President before Christmas and the pair had got along well. He had been strongly backed by the Bush Administration and the UN had been persuaded that he was the best choice.

So confident was the former High Representative to Bosnia that he had clinched the job that he had already been sending job offers to potential staff and making his preparations to begin work in a few weeks’ time.

Lord Ashdown said that he believed that the sudden reversal had far more to do with internal Afghan politics than the international community.

Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, the Afghan Foreign Minister, said that the Kabul Government had not objected to Lord Ashdown but to the powers that he sought. “It is better if our friends let us learn more and more by walking on our own feet, with our own experience,” he said.

One source in Afghanistan said: “What has happened here is because of manoeuvres in the deep, murky depths of the Kabul Palace. It is probably because President Karzai got cold feet at the last minute about the amount of power Ashdown would have wielded.”

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Kabul said: “We still believe that Lord Ashdown would have been an excellent international representative and would have made an extraordinary contribution in support of the Government of Afghanistan.”

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, praised Lord Ashdown. He added: “It is now imperative that the UN and the Government of Afghanistan work together as quickly as possible to agree a suitable candidate to take on this key role.”

The muddled international effort in Afghanistan has no obvious replacement figure, although almost everybody in Kabul agrees that one is badly needed. It could take months to appoint a new envoy, and the candidates whose names have been suggested are less substantial figures than Lord Ashdown, which may make them more acceptable to President Karzai.

It seems unlikely that whoever gets the job will have the wideranging powers for which Lord Ashdown had been bargaining.

One name that has been suggested by the Afghan Government is General Sir John McColl, a former head of Nato’s International Security and Assistance Force, who is well known in Kabul. But it is unlikely that a serving general would be acceptable to the UN, and his name may have been suggested in desperation simply because he is also British.

Two other possible candidates are Hikmet Cetin, Turkey’s former Foreign Minister, and Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat.

Lord Ashdown told The Times that he was sure that a suitable candidate would be found. “About the only good thing that has emerged out of the last four months of careful negotiation is that we now know what the job is. The mandate has now been agreed by the international community and the UN Secretary-General. It has, I understand been agreed by President Karzai so the job description has now been established and I feel very certain that we can find someone in the international community and can enjoy the support of the Afghan Government.”

Few international officials in Kabul would speak openly, but some privately admitted feeling deflated at the failure to appoint Lord Ashdown, who had been expected to achieve much.

Figures close to President Karzai are thought to have been opposed to Lord Ashdown, fearing that he would have been too powerful. Some former warlords even suspected that Lord Ashdown could have pushed to put them on trial for human rights abuses.

In addition, President Karzai has realised in recent months that attacking foreigners plays well with the Afghan electorate, and he has an election to win next year.

After a week of frenzied condemnation of Lord Ashdown in newspapers in Kabul Afghans were less surprised by the move. One newspaper compared him to the leader of the doomed British invasion of 1841, an indication of the growing antagonism many Afghans feel for their foreign backers.

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