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Afghan factions to attend OIC peace talks

RIYADH: Warring Afghan factions will attend peace talks hosted by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Saudi Arabia, OIC officials said on Sunday.

They said an OIC contact group would start the talks with separate meetings on Monday in the Red Sea city of Jeddah with representatives from the Taliban movement and the opposition, with face to face meetings between the two sides later.

Officials from Pakistan, Iran and Guinea, as well as U.N. envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell will attend the talks, expected to last two days.

The Jeddah-based OIC said in a statement on Sunday that the "purpose of the meetings would be to explore the possibilities of bringing the parties together with the view to developing a comprehensive, commonly agreeable plan of action to achieve peace in Afghanistan".

It said OIC teams had held talks with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as well as officials in Afghanistan neighbours Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan over the last two weeks "to seek their views on resuming efforts towards a negotiated political settlement in Afghanistan".

The purist Islamic Taliban controls some 90 percent of the country and is fighting to expel opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood from areas he still holds.

Attempts by the United Nations to broker peace between the two have had little success. The Taliban says Masood must surrender and join its Islamic government.-Reuters