UK's Cameron backs Taliban peace talks on Af-Pak visit

ISLAMABAD: British Prime Minister David Cameron made a surprise visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan Saturday, backing talks with the Taliban after his top general said the West missed a chance to strike a peace deal 10 years ago.

Cameron visited troops in the southern province of Helmand and met President Hamid Karzai as the Afghan government and international powers try to revive peace efforts that recently collapsed in ignominy.

"You can argue about whether the settlement we put in place after 2001 could have been better arranged. Of course you can make that argument," Cameron told Sky News in response to remarks by General Nick Carter, the senior British officer in Afghanistan.

"There is a window of opportunity and I would urge all those who renounce violence, who respect the constitution, who want to have a voice in the future prosperity of this country to seize it," Cameron told reporters in Kabul.

"The Taliban... are beginning to realise that they are not going to secure a role in Afghanistan's future through terror and violence, but by giving up their arms and engaging in a political process."

"We want to talk peace... because that is what the country needs, that is what also the Taliban need," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the joint press conference with Cameron.

Karzai said that the US security talks, which would allow Washington to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after the NATO combat mission ends, remained suspended.

"President (Barack) Obama hopes to get the security pact between Afghanistan and America by October," Karzai said.

"I told him that we have some clear and unchangeable conditions in this regard, which is peace and security in Afghanistan, guarantee of Afghanistan's national interest, a stable central government and an united Afghanistan."

Cameron arrived in Islamabad later Saturday for talks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari focussing on the Afghan peace process.

"Regional situation with reference to peace and reconciliation efforts in neighbouring Afghanistan and economic cooperation between Britain and Pakistan and other matters of mutual interests were discussed during the talks," a senior Pakistani government official told AFP.

During his two-day stay in Islamabad, Cameron will hold "wide-ranging" talks with the top Pakistani leadership, he said.