Pakistanis, Afghans mull tribal talks on Taliban

ISLAMABAD, Dec 18 (Reuters) Pakistan and Afghanistan have exchanged proposals on how to organise meetings of tribal leaders on both sides of their restive border in an effort to end Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency, a Pakistani official said.

Relations between the neighbours, both major US allies in the war on terrorism, have deteriorated sharply this year over Afghan accusations that Taliban militants operate from sanctuaries in Pakistan.

Leaders of the two countries agreed during talks with President George W Bush in Washington in September they would organise councils, known as jirgas, of tribal elders in the hope of rallying support for efforts to tackle the Taliban.

''There is an agreement on the basic concept,'' Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a briefing today Monday, adding that the two sides had exchanged proposals for setting up the jirgas.

''The effort is to to use this traditional institution to establish peace in Afghanistan,'' she said.

She did not elaborate on the proposals.

Pakistan favours limiting attendance to leaders of the ethnic Pashtun tribes that inhabit both sides of the rugged border where Taliban and al Qaeda militants operate.

Afghanistan wants all of its ethnic groups to be represented at the talks.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose government has been struggling with the most intense phase of Taliban violence since the hardline Islamists were ousted in 2001, levelled fresh accusations of Pakistan help for the Taliban last week.

Pakistan says while some militants are crossing the porous border, the root of the Taliban problem is in Afghanistan.

Pakistan was once the Taliban's main sponsor but officially dropped support for the group after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

REUTERS LL KP1855