Pakistan says willing to assist Afghan talks

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi attends a news conference during his official visit in Doha September 2, 2010.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Friday it was willing to assist talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and NATO confirmed its forces had helped ensure a senior Taliban commander reached Kabul.

NATO and U.S. officials have said they are ready to do more to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai's reconciliation efforts with the Taliban, but Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the talks must be led by Afghanistan itself.

"We are there to facilitate. Because we want to see a stable, peaceful Afghanistan. It's in Pakistan's interest to have stability and peace in Afghanistan," Qureshi said in Brussels before talks on Pakistan's economic development.

A senior Pakistani official familiar with the contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban said they had been made possible by the lifting of U.S. opposition. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this week Washington would do whatever it takes to put peace talks on track.

"I don't know whether these contacts will succeed or not but the process has been set into motion," the Pakistani official said. "It's just the beginning and this in itself is a success because earlier there has been (U.S.) opposition."

Pakistan's backing for talks is important. Although it is officially an ally in NATO's campaign against Islamist militancy in Afghanistan, it has been accused of playing a double game by covertly supporting militants fighting there.

Islamabad was the main backer of the Taliban when it was in power in Afghanistan, and has been concerned by the influence its nuclear-armed rival India has on the Kabul government.

NATO FACILITATES PASSAGE

U.S. General David Petraeus, who commands U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, said in London that NATO-led forces had helped ensure a senior Taliban commander was able to reach Kabul to hold talks with the Afghan government.

Petraeus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said several senior Taliban leaders had been in touch with the Afghan government and other countries involved in Afghanistan. He described the talks as preliminary.

"In certain respects we do facilitate that," he said.

He added that "it would not be the easiest of tasks for a senior Taliban commander to enter Afghanistan and make his way to Kabul if ISAF were not ... aware of it and therefore allows it to take place."

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. involvement had to do with "movement of people to meeting locations."

Asked if the U.S. was transporting Taliban to the meetings, he said: "My understanding is that facilitation involves logistics. I cannot tell you whether security forces are actually assisting in the transportation or just coordinating the transportation so that people can move to these meeting locations."

Such comments point to a bigger Western role than previously acknowledged as Kabul seeks a political resolution to the war.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was sure Pakistan would want to play a positive role in ending the conflict and all nations in the region should add their support.

"It's very much in their interests to do so of course because it will help to bring peace to their border areas," he told reporters in Brussels.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in Brussels he was gratified Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had offered Islamabad's help, and Pakistan and other countries had a security interest in events in Afghanistan.

BLOODIEST PHASE OF CONFLICT

Almost 50 senior officials in the international contact group on Afghanistan are due to meet in Rome on Monday to discuss progress toward transferring responsibility for security and development to the Afghan government.

Holbrooke and Petraeus are expected at the talks which will be attended for the first time by a representative from Iran.

U.S. and NATO leaders caution, however, that reconciliation is a complex process that may not happen quickly.

The conflict is in its bloodiest phase since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, and more than 2,000 foreign troops have been killed since the fighting started, more than half of them in the last two years.

This has fed disillusionment with the war among Western nations contributing to the 150,000-strong NATO-led force.

Afghan and U.S. officials say a peace deal is still only a distant possibility, although the prospect is drawing increased attention before the United States starts withdrawing its nearly 100,000 troops from Afghanistan next July.

U.S. and NATO officials say any reconciliation with the Taliban would require individuals to lay down their arms, cut links with terrorist groups and respect the Afghan constitution.

The Taliban have rejected such conditions and say they will not negotiate unless NATO troops leave Afghanistan.

The Taliban deny any contacts with Kabul. But official sources say the preliminary discussions involved the three main insurgent groups -- the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Omar, the Haqqani network and the Hizb-ul-Islami Gulbuddin led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

(Additional reporting by Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, Mohammed Abbas in London, James Mackenzie in Rome and Deborah Charles in Washington; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Jerry Norton)