By Daud Qarizadah, BBC News
The Afghan cabinet of President Hamid Karzai has backed Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar-Spanta in a row with MPs over whether he should stay in office. It agreed with an earlier Supreme Court ruling that he was the legitimate foreign minister of Afghanistan.

But just hours earlier, the speaker of parliament ruled that the decision to remove him was final and that there was no way they would back away from it.

The foreign minister was impeached and sacked a month ago by parliament.

The disagreement reflects a growing divide between the mainly former mujahideen-dominated parliament and the Western backed-government of President Karzai.

'Illegitimate'

Parliament found that Dr Spanta, a Western-educated technocrat, did not do enough to stop 52,000 refugees from being forcibly deported from Iran back to Afghanistan last month.

But President Karzai opposed the voting and referred the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the sacking should be over-turned.

The court said that the refugee issue was not directly related to the foreign ministry and the no-confidence vote against the minister was unconstitutional.

But the Afghan parliament has ignored the ruling.

It argues that it still considers Dr Spanta, who is perceived to have a Maoist background, to be an "illegitimate" foreign minister.

Since taking over from the pro-mujaheedin Dr Abdullah Abdullah as foreign minister, Dr Spanta has widely been seen as a reformist, dealing with sensitive issues like replacing senior diplomatic posts at home and abroad.

Many observers see the court decision as a blow to parliament, and the beginning of more intense political differences in the country.

It is very likely that the announcement will spark a heated debate when parliamentarians are back from their six-week recess.

Observers believe the impeachment and sacking of the outspoken foreign minister by parliament was all part of the same power struggle.

Dr Spanta was strongly critical of the former mujahideen, and opposed an amnesty bill passed by parliament which gave immunity to all those involved in the past two and half decades of civil war.

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