Afghan president meets insurgents for talks

Afghan's president Hamid Karzai has met a major Taliban-linked insurgent group in a step toward national reconciliation, it was revealed today.

Talking with the Taliban and other insurgents is increasing in Afghanistan, even as thousands of Western reinforcements are streaming in to reverse the insurgents' momentum.

The Afghan government is also finalising a plan to use economic incentives to lure low- and mid-level fighters off the battlefield. Regional countries such as Pakistan, India and Iran have begun staking out positions in hope that the eight-year conflict is nearing an end.

An Afghan government spokesman would not say when the meeting with the delegation from Hizb-i-Islami took place or give any details of what was discussed.

A member of the Hizb-i-Islami however said the meeting was this morning and that further talks were expected.

The leader of the delegation is Qutbudin Halal, who served as first deputy prime minister under President Burhanuddin Rabbani in the 1990s.

Officials of the group, whose fighters operate in the east and north of the country, said the delegation brought a 15-point peace plan, which calls for all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan within six months beginning from July, a full year before President Barack Obama would begin removing US forces.

The plan also calls for the current Afghan parliament to serve until December. After that, the parliament would be replaced by an interim government, or shura, which would hold local and national elections within a year.

A new Afghan constitution would be written, merging the current version with ones used earlier.

Earlier this month, Hizb-i-Islami militia fought the Taliban with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns in Baghlan province.

Mr Karzai has begun reaching out to insurgents this year and has called for a national congress, or "peace jirga", to be held late next month to lay the groundwork for a peace initiative.

This month, a Karzai adviser and other Afghans involved in the peace process said the government had been holding secret talks with the Taliban's No. 2 when he was captured in Pakistan.

Mr Karzai was "very angry" when he heard that the Pakistanis had picked up Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar with an assist from US intelligence, one adviser said.