In the last of his reports from Kabul, Nick Morrison finds out how Afghans, many of whom have never known peace, view the future of their country.

'WE have been accustomed to war in Afghanistan - it is not a new thing. Something will look strange if it is new to them, but it is not strange for us, it is unlucky. We have lost everything these two decades. All over Afghanistan we're hopeful that we will have a good future, but we're not sure about that."

Ahmad Mureed is typical of the young, educated students at Kabul University. After more than two decades of conflict, Afghanistan now seems to have its best chance of peace. But when your country has been at war for your entire life, it is difficult not to be sceptical.

At 23, Ahmad was born the year the Soviet Union invaded. Not surprisingly, he puts most of Afghanistan's troubles at the doors of foreign powers, particularly neighbouring Pakistan, which supported the Taliban's rise to power. Although it may have taken the death of more than 3,000 people in New York, at least the West's interference this time aims to be positive.

"It shows that all the people of the world are interested in making Afghanistan peaceful because it has been a centre for terrorism during these two decades. If they don't care for Afghanistan it will damage the world," he says.

But while the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is made up of troops from 19 countries including the UK, has been helping to keep the peace in Kabul, life is far from being sweet.

"Life is a little bit better but it is not what the people were wanting. The economic situation has not got any better. There is food, but there is no income for people to buy the food," Ahmad says. "I am trying to find a job and if I find a job I will not study at university. I have to bring food for my family because I am the only supporter for my family."

While he studies English during the day, every other night from 5pm to 7am Ahmad works as a telephone switchboard operator for $80 a month. "It is not enough for one person, but we need that salary for five people," he says.

Since the fall of the Taliban, exiled Afghans have started returning to help rebuild their country. One of these is Abdul Raqib Khan, 25, whose family fled to Pakistan when he was four. The six-day journey over the mountains was arduous and fraught with danger. On the third day, they were fired on by a Russian patrol. His one-year-old sister was killed and Khan was shot in the leg.

A previous attempt to visit his homeland while the Taliban was still in power was aborted when he was brutally questioned at the border.

"I was crossing the bridge and the Taliban took me and asked where I was going. I said I was a student in Pakistan and I would leave and they said I could not leave," he says.

"A guard took hold of my neck and asked where I was from and I told them a lie and said from Pakistan. He asked me a lot of religious questions and they were punching me. They just treat you like animals. One man there was taken to prison for 61 days."

Now working as a translator for the British contingent in ISAF, Khan has been living in Kabul for four months.

"The first month I didn't see any change, but I think with ISAF here it will be ok. When I tell people I'm working for the British, they ask me to say that it is very kind of them to be in this country. We didn't have this kind of peace before," he says. But, even in the short-term, the prospects for peace are shaky, to say the least. The Interim Administration set up to run the country after the fall of the Taliban, dominated by Tajiks who make up the bulk of the Northern Alliance, is due to hand over to a Transitional Administration next month.

This Transitional Administration will be chosen by a Loya Jirga, a grand assembly made up of representatives of 390 districts across Afghanistan, some of them nominated and some of them elected, which takes place from June 10-16. And it is the composition of this Transitional Administration which could hold the key to keeping ethnic rivalries in check.

Although places in the Loya Jirga have been reserved for ethnic minorities, as well as for women, if it does not produce a more representative government then the uneasy calm could be shattered and all the hard-won gains made so far could be thrown away.

In the run-up to the Loya Jirga tensions are expected to escalate, and British commanders are privately anticipating the prospect of casualties as these tensions explode onto the streets. But there are some areas which have seen an immediate improvement since the arrival of ISAF forces. Under the Taliban, education was restricted to religious studies in both schools and universities, and girls were prevented from studying at all.

"It is very different from the Taliban," says Afzal Sadat, a teacher at the 1,800 pupil Naswan-e-Qala-e-Bakhtiar School. "In the Taliban regime there were no notebooks and no teachers. We still don't have many materials for teaching, but in Kabul the people want to learn.

"We hope that our country will be rebuilt and we will have a new Afghanistan in the future. It is different from the Taliban, and now we may have a bright future."

Although the presence of Western troops on the streets of Kabul is helping to maintain a veneer of calm - perhaps one of the few instances in its history where foreign interference in Afghanistan has benign intentions - whether this will be a lasting peace will be up to the Afghans themselves.