Afghan President Hamid Karzai said today western allies backed his plans to reconcile with Taliban fighters and US generals said leaders of the insurgency eventually could be brought into talks.
General David Petraeus, the head of the US Central Command, said the fighting would get harder before the situation improved, as the United States sends an extra 30,000 troops to break a stalemate in Afghanistan.
But both he and General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, held out the possibility of eventual talks with the Taliban leadership to end a war which is now into its ninth year.
While Mr Karzai was working on a formal reintegration programme for Taliban fighters, expected to win backing at an international conference in London on Thursday, talks could eventually be held with their leaders, Gen Petraeus said.
"The concept of reconciliation, of talks between senior Afghan officials and senior Taliban or other insurgent leaders, perhaps involving some Pakistani officials as well, is another possibility," he told The Times newspaper.
Gen McChrystal told the Financial Times he hoped increased troop levels would weaken the Taliban enough for its leaders to accept a peace deal and held out the possibility the Taliban eventually could help run the country.
"It's not my job to extend olive branches, but it is my job to help set conditions where people in the right positions can have options on the way forward," he said.
"I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past," he said when asked whether he would be content to see Taliban leaders in a future Afghan government.
The conference in London on Thursday is expected to agree a framework for the Afghan government to begin taking charge of security, in line with a timetable set by US president Barack Obama to start drawing down US troops in 2011.
Mr Karzai, speaking after meeting Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and Turkish president Abdullah Gul in Istanbul, said Afghanistan had the backing of its allies, including the United States and Europe, for renewed efforts at reconciliation.
Reuters