Kabul agrees to talks with Islamabad

Kabul: Afghanistan accepted Pakistan's offer yesterday to resume talks which Kabul had boycotted after accusing its neighbour of being behind a series of attacks.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani talked on the sidelines of regional summit in Colombo yesterday, their first meeting since July 15.

"At the suggestion of Pakistan, the Afghan side agreed to re-engage on all bilateral and multilateral forums," a presidential palace statement said.

They agreed the two governments needed to develop a common strategy to overcome the threat of terrorism and extremism. The two foreign ministers will meet soon, it said.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are both important US allies but their relations have for decades been dogged by a dispute over their border. Recently, Kabul has accused Pakistan of involvement in violence in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and Al Qaida militants routinely attack foreign and Afghan forces.

More than 15,000 people, including about 460 foreign troops, have been killed in Afghanistan since 2006 when the ousted Taliban relaunched their insurgency.

Afghanistan says Pakistan harbours the militants and Karzai last month said directly that Pakistani agents were behind the recent violence, including the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7th which killed 58 people. India has blamed Pakistan's intelligence agency for the attack on its mission - a charge denied by Pakistan.

Islamabad backed the Taliban in Afghanistan through the 1990s but officially cut support after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers have been killed trying to dislodge Al Qaida and Taliban fighters from enclaves on the Afghan border.