KABUL: Afghanistan rejected on Sunday reported claims by Pakistan’s interior minister that President Hamid Karzai had admitted that ‘terrorist’ training camps in this country were operating against Pakistan.

‘This is absolutely not true. This is baseless,’ Interior Minister Hanif Atmar said at a press conference, also denying that Karzai had told his ministry to take action against these training grounds.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik reportedly told a private television channel that Karzai had made the admission during a meeting in Kabul last month.

Malik was also quoted as saying: ‘Karzai directed his security adviser and interior minister to destroy and close down all training camps working against Pakistan.’ Rejecting this claim, Atmar said the president had rather pledged ‘firm action’ against threats to Pakistan from Afghanistan should he receive evidence.

Atmar also disagreed with the Pakistan minister’s reported claim that 90 per cent of militants arrested in Pakistan were of Afghan origin.

Kabul had ‘strong evidence’ that Afghan as well as Pakistani, Central Asian and Al Qaeda-linked militants of various nationalities were operating from safe havens across the border, the minister said.

‘It doesn’t really matter which country is the origin of a terrorist,’ he added.

‘What really matters that we must stop the sanctuaries and destroy the training facilities, the financial support network and the system whereby the terrorists are provided with weapons and the (border) crossing points for the terrorists.’

Talks with Taliban

The top UN official in Afghanistan called on Sunday for talks with Taliban leaders at the highest level, another indication that parts of the international community are reaching out to the top echelons of the radical movement.

Kai Eide did not name Taliban leader Mullah Omar in his call for negotiations, but he dismissed plans that call for reaching out to only some militant commanders.

‘If you want relevant results, you have to talk to those who are relevant. If you want important results, you have to talk to those who are important. If you only have a partial reconciliation process, you will have partial results,’ said Eide, a Norwegian diplomat who heads the United Nations mission to Afghanistan.

While the need for talks with the Taliban are recognised across the international community, the conditions attached to such proposals -- and the timing of the talks -- are a bone of contention.

US-installed President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for talks with Taliban leaders on condition that the militants accept Afghanistan’s constitution. Karzai has even personally guaranteed safe passage for Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar if he attends such talks.

Omar has publicly dismissed the overtures, calling Karzai an American puppet and saying no talks can happen while foreign troops are in the country.

But behind the public posturing, several Gulf countries are working on sketching out the contours of a political process that could eventually bring an end to the expanding conflict.

The war is claiming a record number of lives among US and Nato troops and Afghan civilians nearly eight years after the US invaded the country and ousted the Taliban from power.

The Taliban government -- led by Mullah Omar -- was sheltering Osama bin Laden as he plotted the Al Qaeda attacks of Sept 11, 2001.

Eide’s remarks follow calls made last week by David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, for talks with regular Taliban fighters.

Miliband said that while hard-line fundamentalist commanders committed to a global jihad must be pursued relentlessly, ordinary rank-and-file Taliban should be given the opportunity ‘to leave the path of confrontation with the government’.

He said Afghanistan’s government must develop ‘a political strategy for dealing with the insurgency through reintegration and reconciliation’ and ‘effective grass-roots initiatives to offer an alternative to fight or flight to the foot soldiers of the insurgency’.—Agencies