‘Let's talk to the Taliban’: the growing debate

The argument that the Afghanistan government and its western allies should be talking to 'moderate' members of the Taliban, with a view to including them in the long-term governance of the country, is gaining ground.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, speaking at Nato headquarters in Brussels yesterday, suggested Taliban insurgents could be offered incentives to 'change sides', including seats in the Afghan government and even the chance to return to farming land in their villages.

He stressed there was no chance of negotiations with the Taliban leader Mullah Omar - who, he said, had made a 'choice for global jihad' - or with those who seek to kill British soldiers. But there was a case for wooing the moderates - or what some commentators call the 'second tier' of the Taliban.

The Daily Mail quoted a senior Government source saying 'most' Taliban fighters could be won over.

"The overwhelming majority of those in the insurgency, and certainly the overwhelming majority of those on the ground, are people who are not ideologically committed at all costs to the establishment of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," the source said. "They are Afghans and they, in principle, can be brought back in to peaceful politics and their communities."

President Hamid Karzai also offered an olive branch to the Taliban on Monday. In an interview with the Associated Press, he called for a dialogue with Taliban members who are not affiliated with al-Qaeda and who are willing to repudiate violence "and announce that publicly".

However, he was not prepared to discuss the key Taliban demand - a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops - because he believes their continued presence is in the national interest.

The eagerness for talks with the Taliban came as British military commanders declared that Operation Panther's Claw - a month of heavy fighting, in which 11 British soldiers died - had