KURGAN-TYUBE, Tajikistan -- The commander of pro-government lighters here said Sunday that a new plan to send Kyrgyz peacekeeping troops to the war-torn region was "only a start".


Commonwealth leaders agreed at Friday's summit meeting in Bishkek to send Kyrgyz peacekeepers to Kurgan-Tyube in an attempt to end the fighting there between supporters of former president Rakhmon Nabiyev and the government that replaced him.


Commander Amridin Ashchkhridinov welcomed the idea. But he said in an interview that, although his troops were "sympathetic" to the Kyrgyz and inclined to trust them, they would need to verify that Kyrgyz neutrality would be strictly maintained before he would agree to disarm his troops.


"It's far too early to talk about laying down our arms", Ashchkhridinov said. "What if the C. I. S. comes here like the Russians did? That kind of help we don't need".


Like nearly all pro-government fighters, Ashchkhridinov blames Russian troops, which have bases in the area, for turning over weapons to the Kulyabi enemy -- a Tajik clan from the neighboring region.


Kulyabi commanders, hemmed in by a government blockade and engaged in fighting in two regions of Kulyan-Tyube Sunday could not be reached for comment.


On Friday, at the Commonwealth summit in Bishkek, Tajik representatives of the shaky Dushanbe government agreed to allow a "contingent" of Kyrgyz soldiers, under Commonwealth command, into Kurgan-Tyube.


Other Central Asian nations, which also possess mixed populations of Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Russians, and Kyrgyz, are watching the mounting civil war in Tajikistan with unease, fearing it could spill over their own Soviet-drawn borders that bear little relation to ethnic composition.


Ashchkhridinov said that on Saturday a representative of Tajikistan's Supreme Soviet called the military headquarters in Kurgan-Tyube, presently located at a local collective farm, to warn them that Kyrgyz troops would begin arriving on Monday or Tuesday.


"It's still to be seen", said Ashchkhridinov. "I hope it will be the end of the war. But even if it is, it won't be the end of the conflict because there are weapons in everybody's hands".


Ashchkhridinov said that if the Kyrgyz troops succeeded in halting the fighting, a "tough law", would be required to disarm his troops.


Indeed, pro-government fighters interviewed on Sunday were suspicious of attempts to halt the war. Several demanded that Sangakh Safarov, the Kulyabi leader, be placed under arrest as a condition for peace.


Since early spring, the government of Tajikistan has steadily lost its grip on power, with several regions acting in outright defiance of Dushanbe. So far most of the fighting has been confined to the regions that border Afghanistan.


With fighting scattered, and hospitals closed, an accurate casualty could be unavailable. But pro-government commanders on the battlefield estimate that up to 1, 000 have been killed or wounded since early September.