Kabul, Afghanistan ? Delegates assembling from every corner of Afghanistan on Saturday faced tough debate in hammering out the first post-Taliban constitution, the bedrock of what Afghans hope will be a better life after years of war.

Under intense security, some 500 representatives — from village mullahs to Western-educated exiles — must work out the role of Afghan women, Islam’s place in politics and the sharing of power in a nation accustomed to fighting over it.

The constitutional loya jirga, or grand council, which opens today, is a key step in the two-year drive to stabilize the country under an empowered central government, and will lead to landmark national elections planned for June.

For U.S. officials pushing the process, the Afghans’ experience could provide lessons for Iraq, where American administrators have faced an even tougher task in drawing up a constitution. American and Iraqi leaders have differed over how to even start drafting the document. A timetable calls for elections to choose delegates for drafting an Iraqi constitution in early 2005 — about two years after Saddam Hussein’s fall.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Afghanistan’s new charter would be a “major milestone in its transition to a constitutional, representative government that respects its traditions and protects the welfare of its citizens.”

The European Union said it hoped the charter would be “pluralistic and based on universal human rights, including equal rights for men and women.”

But the aspirations of ordinary Afghans, among the world’s poorest people, are simpler.

“Look at the ruins of this country,” said Bismillah, a 43-year-old shopkeeper in Kabul who goes by only one name. “Let’s get the constitution approved so the government can get to work.”

It could take 10 days to several weeks for the loya jirga, meeting in a huge tent at a Kabul college campus, to finalize the 160-article draft presented by a constitutional commission in October.