KABUL, Afghanistan- The head of a new commission tasked with reforming Afghanistan's legal system said Thursday it will still be based on traditional Islamic law, which allows authorities to sever the hands of thieves and stone adulterers to death.

Commission Chairman Bahauddin Baha said Islamic law, or Sharia, cannot be changed.

"No commission will replace the rule of Islam. Our country is an Islamic country and we will implement Islamic law," he said.

He said those laws were still enforced in Afghanistan. However, no amputations or stonings have been reported since the hardline Taliban government was overthrown last year in a U.S.-led war.

Baha said such punishments were unlikely because the burden of proof required is so great that they would be difficult to implement.

"If you read the Quran very carefully, cutting off somebody's hand for theft ... it's very difficult to do," Baha said. "You need a lot of witnesses to verify if a crime actually occurred. It's possible, but it's not easy."

He called the Taliban's harsh interpretation of Sharia an aberration. "What the Taliban practiced was not Sharia law, it was something they made up themselves and it was not acceptable to the people and it was not acceptable to Islam," Baha said.

The government-appointed commission _ nine men and two women _ comprises various ethnic groups and both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, whose versions of Islamic law differ slightly, Baha noted.

The commission will work with the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Court, and make reform recommendations to the government.

The commission also plans to invite foreign legal experts to train Afghan lawyers and judges to bring them up to par with international standards, said Baha, a former Supreme Court judge.

The U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, said establishing rule of law was key to achieving peace in the country.

"Peace cannot really take root in Afghanistan or in any other country without justice," Brahimi said. "So helping the country establish the rule of law is really the most important task that is facing the people of Afghanistan and their leadership for the moment and for the years to come." Following its interpretation of Islamic law, the former Taliban government banned girls from going to school and women from working. It also outlawed music and television.

Until the Taliban's fall, executions by hanging were common in the national stadium in Kabul. Public executions were also carried out under the previous regime led by former President Burhanuddin Rabbani.