April 07, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1428

KABUL, April 6: Taliban rebels seized control of a district in the south of Afghanistan on Friday, officials said, as more than 1,000 ISAF and Afghan soldiers attacked a Taliban stronghold.

The Taliban move came as a suicide bomber in a taxi killed six people near the national parliament in Kabul.

President Hamid Karzai meanwhile said he had met members of the Taliban movement to bring reconciliation to his country.

Karzai said Taliban representatives had been regularly meeting government bodies, adding: “I've had some Taliban coming to speak to me as well, so this process has been there for a long time.” But he ruled out talks with Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammad Omar, a close ally of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, or with foreign militants.

Hours before he spoke, 100 Taliban militants overran Khak Afghan district in the troubled Zabul province, the latest of several rebel attempts to exert control in parts of southern and western Afghanistan.

Police made a “tactical” withdrawal after insurgents attacked the headquarters of the mountainous district from several directions at once, said Ghulam Shah Alikhil, a spokesmen for the provincial governor.

There were no immediate plans in place to retake the area, he said.

The Taliban have also occupied other districts in Afghanistan this year. In most cases, the rebels have been driven out after a short time.

As part of the ISAF “Operation Achilles” to root out Taliban in the south of Afghanistan, mainly Helmand, more than a 1,000 British, American, Dutch, Canadian, Danish, Estonian and Afghan troops launched an assault on positions close the district of Sangin on Wednesday, according to an ISAF statement on Friday.

“Over the course of the last two days, we have reduced the enemy's ability to destabilise the government of Afghanistan,” said Dutch Major General Ton van Loon.

“By doing so we are one step closer to creating a secure, stable and prosperous environment in which reconstruction and development can take place.” In Kabul, a suicide bomber struck a few hundred metres (yards) from the parliament building killing five people including a policeman, the city's criminal investigation police chief General Alishah Paktiawal said.

“It was a suicide bombing... The bomber was driving a yellow and white taxi,” Paktiawal said. He said it was unclear if the attacker was targeting parliament but added that the device may have exploded prematurely.

The two French nationals are from the organisation Terre d'Enfance (A World for Our Children).

Karzai however pledged to make no more hostage deals, saying that one he made last month to free an Italian journalist was because the Italian government -- which has 1,800 troops in Afghanistan -- could have collapsed.

Karzai ordered the release of five Taliban prisoners, including some high-profile figures, in March in the controversial trade which resulted in the freedom of kidnapped Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

“It was an extraordinary situation and won't be repeated again,” he said.

“No more deals with no one and with no other country.” Separately on Friday the Taliban killed five security guards in an attack on a construction company working on a highway near Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, officials said.—AFP