BAGRAM, Afghanistan, Dec 7 (AFP) - In a foretaste of resistance to foreign peacekeepers by the Northern Alliance, an uneasy atmosphere reigns between US forces and their Afghan allies at the Bagram airbase north of Kabul. 
	
	
 Once the main Soviet airbase during Moscow's 1979-89 invasion of Afghanistan, Bagram has now become the hub for flights into the country as Kabul's own airport cannot be used because of unexploded US bombs. 
	
	
 Although Northern Alliance control the main entrance to the base, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Kabul, just inside the perimeter there is a checkpoint manned by heavily-armed US soldiers. 
	
	
 A few feet (metres) ahead down the road, British commandos are on guard duty. 
	
	
 A contingent of the US 10th mountain division has taken up base at Bagram, joining some 150 British Marines, to establish a humanitarian air corridor for international aid but also to ensure security at the crucial airbase. 
	
	
 "By no means are we trying to set up a permanent presence here, we just want to help," said US military spokesman Sergeant-Major Ray Cordell. 
	
	
 But the ill-disciplined alliance troops showed little-disguised irritation at the Americans' dominant role at Bagram, refusing to allow journalists through to speak to the US soldiers. 
	
	
 The top alliance commander in the area, General Babajan, driving out of the base to inspect positions along with some US and British officers, good naturedly shrugged off any problem. 
	
	
 "Our cooperation? It is good, you can see they (the Americans) are here," he said smiling. But then asked about permission to visit the base, Babajan replied: "You have to talk to the Americans, they're in charge here." 
	
	
 The balance of authority became clear when the general invited journalists to accompany the military convoy, an order swiftly countermanded by the US officers. 
	
	
 At the checkpoint, five US soldiers armed with M-4 carbines were manning the post, assisted by a sniffer dog. 
	
	
 The US military will not say how many troops they have brought to the base but their presence has already provoked an armed incident. 
	
	
 A group of journalists who toured Bagram accompanied by US soldiers on Wednesday were halted in their tracks by a burst of gunfire by alliance soldiers next to their vehicle. 
	
	
 "When it gets to the point that Northern Alliance troops start firing in the air just next to a car with reporters, you have to do something about it," said Cordell. 
	
	
 He said that Northern Alliance commanders were irritated by images of armed US soldiers on Afghan soil, and so media access to the base had to be temporarily suspended. 
	
	
 "They don't want their people to see pictures of foreign troops in Afghanistan," he said. 
	
	
 But the spokesman also admitted that the US troops reminded the Afghans of the Soviet military invasion. 
	
	
 "We have the same caps as the Soviet soldiers, that brings back bad memories for the Afghans," said Cordell. 
	
	
 Ironically, some 200 armed Russians, who appeared to be from the military although they were dressed in uniforms of Russia's emergencies ministry, set up camp 10 days ago in the centre of Kabul. 
	
	
 Moscow said they are there to help re-establish its embassy and deliver humanitarian supplies. 
	
	
 But Russia, which armed the alliance throughout its five-year civil war with the Taliban, has offered unequivocal political support for the loose coalition of ethnic minorities which swept into Kabul on November 13. 
	
	
 Under the power-sharing accord signed in Bonn on Wednesday, which should see a new interim government take power on December 22, a mainly Muslim UN-mandated security force is to be deployed in Kabul. 
	
	
 However Northern Alliance defence minister General Mohammad Qasim Fahim said the same day that he had rebuffed a British offer to send troops to Kabul in the coming days and insisted he wants a strictly limited UN force.