PARIS, July 1: A candidate in Afghanistan's forthcoming presidential election said on Thursday he was prepared to recognize the controversial Durand treaty setting out the border between Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan.

Latif Perdram, the head of the newly-founded Afghanistan National Congress party, also said he was in favour of a federal system of government for his war-torn country. "The Durand Line has to be recognised," Perdram said after a news conference in Paris.

Pedram is the first Afghan politician to declare his acceptance of the controversial Durand treaty, which was signed between Afghan king Amir Abdurrahman Khan and British India in 1893.

The treaty annexed large parts of Afghanistan to British India. Pakistan inherited them after the British left the Indian subcontinent and they are now part of Pakistan's Pakthoon tribal areas.

This led to a long-standing dispute between the two neighbours that has strained bilateral relations for decades. Pedram, who is in his 40s, told the news conference the border had to be left where it now stood in order to distinguish who was Afghan and who was Pakistani.

"This crisis has to be solved. The Pakhtoons on the other side (Pakistan) of the Line do not want to join ruined Afghanistan," he said. -AFP