Claims Taliban ready to negotiate

TALIBAN officials have engaged in periodic, discreet contacts with Afghan and US officials for months but are unwilling to move to formal peace negotiations until the US agrees to a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops, according to a Pakistani intelligence official and members of a newly formed Afghan peace council.

The White House said yesterday that President Barack Obama supports attempts by the Afghan government to open peace talks with Taliban leaders, but still wants the insurgents to renounce violence and their support of al-Qaida.

However, press secretary Robert Gibbs said the US was not taking part in any such talks. “This is about Afghanistan,” he said. “It has to be done by the Afghans.”