Karzai rejects Taliban conditions

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said Taliban fighters should drop their demand that US and Nato forces must leave Afghanistan before reconciliation talks can be held. Karzai said on Sunday that talks would make it easier for troops to leave, adding that he was hoping to launch a peace initiative this year. At a conference on Afghanistan in London last week, Karzai called on tribal and ethnic leaders to take part in a "loya jirga" - or assembly of elders - as a start to peace talks and announced an international fund to reward Taliban fighters who disarmed. However, Taliban commanders dismissed the initiative, saying that they were only willing to hold talks only if the more than 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan withdraw. Karzai said the Taliban's insistence on a withdrawal of Western troops before any talks was "not a meaningful gesture". "The international community is here for success in defeat of terrorism, success in the defeat of extremism," Karzai told a news conference."Therefore, they have to be satisfied that they have achieved their objective before they can leave."

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