KABUL -- Afghan carpet makers say they have had the rug pulled from under their feet with the demise of the Taleban and the return of over one million refugees from Pakistan this year alone.

Ironically, the rebuilding of Afghanistan has deprived them of their workforce, as parents raise their aspirations for the boys who used to do much of the weaving.

"The industry is going through a very difficult time at the moment," said Ghulam Yahia, who runs a factory with 15 looms in the western suburbs of Kabul. "The next year is going to be a make or break one for the industry. I think it will get through, but there will definitely be some companies that do not make it."

Afghanistan has been famous for centuries for the beauty and durability of its hand-woven rugs and carpets.

Alexander the Great was said to have hired a counselor to advise him specifically on what sort of carpets he should take back with him on his world-conquering travels.

But, ironically, very few Afghan carpets have been made in Afghanistan in the last two decades. Most, while made with Afghan wools, on Afghan looms by Afghan weavers, have been woven in the vast refugee camps that sprouted in Pakistan and Iran after the Soviet invasion of 1979. "It made sense," Yahia told Reuters. "Most of the weavers left Afghanistan to become refugees, so the carpet factory owners moved the looms to Pakistan. That is where the labor force was."

??????? Profits in Pakistan ????? But since the overthrow of the Taleban in December, over 1.3 million refugees have returned home -- carpet weavers among them -- and the loom owners have moved their equipment back to Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, factory owners say they are still in the grip of Pakistan carpet dealers who they say take the lion's share of the markups in price that an Afghan carpet experiences from workshop to showroom floor.

"We have got to get control of the industry in Afghanistan rather than allow the Pakistanis to run our affairs in Lahore," said Mohammad Faizal, head of a Kabul Carpet Cooperative. "At the moment we are hostages ... we have no say in the market. Buyers simply will not come here, so we have to go to them."

At Yahia's factory, around 75 boys, teenagers and young men are engaged daily in making carpets.

The looms are made of steel -- the only bow to modernity in the process -- but everything else is done the same way as it was centuries ago.

Far from the stereotypical image of a Dickensian sweatshop, Yahia's is a cheerful place with the boys teasing each other and constantly playing pranks. Some of the boys are as young as nine, but they all go to school and work after hours in the factory. "Most parents have greater aspirations for their children these days," said Yahia. "In the city, most parents would prefer for their children to go to school than work in the factory. We really are running out of labor."

He said if the trend continued, most carpet makers would move their looms to the rural areas and try to find women and girls to do the work.

Some carpets are on sale in shops in Kabul, but Yahia warned that many foreigners were not getting what they paid for.

"You really have to know what you are doing if you want to buy a carpet," he said.

Many shopkeepers lay their new carpets out on the pavements of the capital's dusty streets every day to "age" them.

According to local lore, a carpet left outside for a week will age 10 years -- increasing its value. "My best advice is to buy one that you want -- that you want to keep in your house because it is beautiful. If you are happy with the price, then buy it. So what if you pay $50 more than you could have? "It will give you years of happiness and will probably increase in value as well," he said. "Do not buy for investment unless you are an expert.