German FM leaves open Taliban invitation for Afghan conference

Berlin, Nov 5, IRNA -- German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle left open possibility of inviting radical Taliban militia to attend next month's International Bonn Conference on Afghanistan's Future. Asked in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa, if the Taliban would be invited to the December 5-8 meeting in Bonn on Afghanistan's future, Westerwelle replied, ' I will not speculate about that.' 'What is certain is that the issue of the internal reconciliation process has to be driven first by the Afghans themselves. Peace in Afghanistan can only be agreed between the parties and groupings in Afghanistan,' he added. Germany has in the past been the scene of behind-the-scenes talks between the United States and Taliban, according to press reports. Berlin will be hosting the international Afghan conference, exactly 10 years after staging the first Afghanistan meeting - dubbed the 'Petersberg Conference' - which was held following the fall of the Taliban regime. Featuring the attendance of foreign ministers and political representatives from 85 countries, the meeting is also to assess rebuilding efforts in the war-stricken country. Western reconstruction programs since the ouster of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers in 2001 have been marred by an ongoing insecurity, corruption, poor governance, overlapping aid work and the sheer difficulty of trying to transform a deeply poor tribal nation where only 28 percent of people are literate. /end