Jerome Starkey: Analysis

PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai's new peace council isn't the first time Kabul has tried to talk to the Taleban. Previous efforts, though, have usually failed.

Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one eyed leader of the Taleban, has repeatedly ignored Karzai's previous olive branches.

Karzai even said recently he was thinking of joining the Taleban, but the Taleban said it wouldn't have him.

His announcement yesterday was an attempt to honour the demands of an assembly he convened in June to approve contacts with the insurgents. It's first job will be to prove it is more than just another talking shop, or yet another excuse for Karzai's stooges to get their hands on more international cash.

He hasn't announced who will lead the new council or who will sit on it though he has promised to put women on board.

As ever, the real negotiations are shrouded in secrecy. Senior diplomats are already talking, with meetings between Afghan officials and the Taleban in Saudi Arabia, the Maldives and Dubai.

More recently a delegation of elders from Hezb-i-Islami, a militant group loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, travelled to Kabul to meet Karzai.

The insurgents want international forces to leave but distrust a government they see as corrupt.

The challenge for any negotiator, however, will be to keep Afghanistan's fractured society onside during the talks.