Kandahar, Afghanistan ? Angry tribal leaders from across Afghanistan’s royalist south warned Saturday of an “extremely strong reaction” if the new central government tries to isolate the returning Afghan king after 28 years in exile.

Three hundred turbaned elders in an emergency assembly adopted a declaration to be sent to U.N. and U.S. authorities, whom some blamed for reported restrictions on the king, Mohammad Zaher Shah.

Zaher Shah has long been expected to fly from Rome, his exile home, to the Afghan capital of Kabul around March 20-23. But public plans remain sketchy even at this late date.

Supporters said they have heard, from people close to the king, that the interim government in Kabul told Zaher Shah he could not be involved in political activities – interpreted by royalists to mean he could not receive visitors.

In addition, the number of family members accompanying him would be limited, according to this report. The southerners also complained that he would be housed in a small, “unworthy” home, rather than the Kabul royal palace.

Such preconditions are “undemocratic and unacceptable,” the declaration said.

“If these reported restrictions are confirmed, the designated sources shall definitely face extremely strong reaction and opposition of our nation,” it said.

The tribal leaders, assembled on urgent notice from seven southwestern provinces, issued an invitation for the king to come to Kandahar city, the old royal capital, where Afghans “will have total and free access to meet the father of the nation.”

The return of the 87-year-old king, driven into exile in 1973 when his cousin staged a coup against the two-century-old Durrani monarchy, was part of the interim political structure negotiated in Germany in December to succeed the Taliban government, which was ousted by forces led by the United States in its war against the al-Qaida terror network.

In June, the monarch is to convene a traditional tribal assembly, or loya jirga, which will select a transitional government to rule Afghanistan for 18 months, until elections. Some say the king should be transitional head of state.

“These reports say he won’t be allowed to take part in political activities. He is coming for a political activity!” Yusuf Pashtun, a meeting participant and top aide to Kandahar provincial Gov. Gul Agha, told a reporter. If the reports are true, he said, “there will be trouble.”

The king is very popular among the Durrani tribes of the ethnic Pashtun south, but less so among other Pashtuns farther east, and among other ethnic groups in central and northern Afghanistan. Although the interim government is headed by a relative of the king, Hamid Karzai, the most powerful posts are held by ethnic Tajik northerners.

Pashtun, the governor’s aide, would say only that “certain responsible people” apparently were trying to isolate the king. Asked whether they were Afghans or non-Afghans, he replied, “Maybe both.”

Another royalist activist, Kandahar politician Izzatullah Wasafi, said Washington, the most influential power in Afghanistan today, bore responsibility for any restrictions on the king, even without evidence of a direct U.S. role. “They should not allow it to happen,” he told a reporter.

Sitting in a large private garden in the midday heat, elder after elder took a microphone Saturday to denounce what they saw as insults to “the father of the nation.”

“We are our own men, our own nation!” said one. “We run our own country!”

Wasafi said the declaration would be sent to the interim government, U.N. officials, the U.S. Congress and the White House.