Q+A: Talking to Afghanistan's Taliban

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he would guarantee security for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar if he ever wanted to negotiate and said Western allies should remove him or leave if they disagreed with that.

With the Taliban insurgency spreading seven years after the hardline Islamists were forced from power, the possibility of talks with more moderate Taliban leaders is increasingly being considered, both in Afghanistan and among its allies.

WHY ARE THERE TALKS ABOUT TALKS WITH THE TALIBAN?

- Foreign troops levels in Afghanistan are at their highest since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 -- as are their casualty rates -- but the insurgency is spreading. The prospect of a bloody, drawn-out stalemate has focused attention on the possibility of talks to end the conflict. Talks with insurgents in Iraq are seen as having contributed to an improvement in security there.

TO WHOM MIGHT THE GOVERNMENT TALK?

- The government says it is willing to talk to anyone who recognizes the constitution. The Taliban have never been a homogeneous group, but an alliance of like-minded factions. Even during their rule, for example, there were some Taliban officials who were opposed to a close alliance with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. The government is hoping to draw moderate Taliban, or perhaps opportunistic commanders or ethnic Pashtun tribal leaders who support the Taliban, into talks to isolate the hardliners.

DOES EVERYONE AGREE TALKS ARE A GOOD IDEA?

- The U.S. military is bound to be wary of any talks that it thinks merely give the Taliban time to regroup. The United States has been critical of pacts the Pakistani government has struck with militants in that country.

- However, U.S. General David Petraeus, credited with helping save Iraq from all-out civil war, has made reconciliation and regional involvement major themes of a review of U.S. military policy in Afghanistan that he is overseeing as the new head of U.S. Central Command.

- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month the United States would be prepared to reconcile with the Taliban if the Afghan government pursued talks but Washington would not consider any negotiations with al Qaeda.

- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has suggested he was open to talks with more moderate Taliban leaders.

- Others including British commanders and the United Nations have said the war cannot be won militarily and talks with the Taliban will be crucial to ending the conflict.

- Most Afghans, fed up with the interminable violence, think there will have to be talks at some stage. Even some ethnic Tajik political leaders, implacable enemies of the mostly Pashtun Taliban, have supported talks.

WHY IS KARZAI OFFERING TO TALK TO MULLAH OMAR?

- Mullah Omar carries a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head and is generally believed to be a stalwart bin Laden ally.

- Karzai probably offered Mullah Omar safe passage if he wanted talks not in the expectation he would take up the offer, but to emphasize his message to other Taliban.

- Analysts say Karzai also has an eye on a presidential election next year that he hopes to win, and wants to be seen by a war-weary electorate as making every effort to bring peace.

HAVE THERE BEEN ANY TALKS AND WHAT DO THE TALIBAN SAY?

- There have been no confirmed direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, or its Western allies, but a tentative first step was taken in September when a group of pro-government Afghan officials and former Taliban officials met in Saudi Arabia for discussions on how to end the conflict.

- Taliban spokesmen dismissed the Saudi meeting as meaningless and stuck firm to their position that there can be no talks as long as foreign troops remain in Afghanistan.

(Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by David Fox)