Afghan President Hamid Karzai to host 'peace jirga'

Hundreds of Afghan notables and the elders are meeting in Kabul to discuss how Taliban fighters to persuade lay down their arms.

President Hamid Karzai is aimed at the three-day "peace jirga 'to create support for his plan to turn an economic incentives reformed militants.

Taliban chiefs have dismissed the talks and threatened with death delegates.

They carry a nine years to fight the US-backed government to overthrow it and to expel the 130,000 foreign troops.
Traditional solution

Up to 1,600 delegates - including tribal elders, religious leaders and members of parliament from across the country - are expected to be in a huge tent to be convened at a university in Kabul for the traditional meeting.
But correspondents say they will be far surpassed by the 12,000 security officers who guard against a Taliban attack.

The jirga is due to late arrival on Friday, with an expected statement on what steps should be taken to the rebellion, which groups should be included in the process to terminate and how they should be approached.
'Pointless exercise'

President Karzai has suggested offering an amnesty and reintegration incentives to low-level Taliban who agree with the constitution.

He also offered to the removal of some Taliban to negotiate a UN blacklist, and certain leaders asylum in another Islamic country to peace talks.

On the eve of the conference, the Taliban said in a statement that the Jirga not represent the Afghan people and was aimed at safeguarding the interests of foreigners.

Another insurgent group, Hizb-i-Islami, led by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, called the conference a "useless exercise".

"The participants of the jirga are favorites of the state," said a statement released by the group. "They have no power of decision. It is only a consultative jirga - without any involvement of the mujahideen (resistance fighters)."

Both militant groups have refused to participate in peace talks until foreign troops remain in Afghanistan.

But the BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul, said NATO believes that by addressing local grievances, many Taliban fighting near their homes were to the other side, leaving the ideologues irreconcilables and still fighting .

Even if the jirga continues, the NATO, U.S. and Afghan troops preparing for their largest offensive against the rebels in the southern province of Kandahar.

Foreign troop numbers are set to peak in August 150 000 before the U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is a planned withdrawal of troops in July 2011.