Afghanistan's Karzai calls for talks with Taliban

KABUL, Sep 9 (Reuters) Afghan President Hamid Karzai today urged Taliban guerrillas to hold talks with his government to help end fighting that has ravaged the Central Asian country and killed thousands.

His call for talks comes on the sixth anniversary of the assassination of anti-Taliban mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Masood in 2001, and shortly after he was whisked away from a commemoration ceremony after warning shots were apparently fired by police outside the venue.

''We don't have any formal negotiations with the Taliban. They don't have an address. Who do we talk to?'' Karzai told a joint news conference with visiting Latvian President Valdis Zatlers.

''I wish there (was) someone that will eventually come out with a telephone number, with an address, with a leadership structure that we can go and talk to,'' he added. ''If I can have place where to send somebody to talk to, an authority that publicly says it is the Taliban authority, I will do it.'' More than 7,000 people have been killed during the past 19 months in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since the resurgent Taliban's overthrow in 2001.

REUTERS PD PM1510