WASHINGTON, March 5: Only peace and reconciliation can end violence in Afghanistan, said the US State Department as the Taliban announced their plan to form a political party.

“We believe peace and reconciliation is the surest way to end violence,” said a US State Department spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, when asked to comment on the Taliban’s plan.

“So we continue to have the objective of Afghans sitting down with Afghans to determine the future of their country,” he added.

A Taliban spokesman told reporters on Monday that they might form a political party before the Afghan elections due next year. Soon after the elections, the United States intends to withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan, transferring their responsibilities to Afghan forces.

The spokesman, Mullah Agha Jan Mutasim, said those Taliban leaders whose names had been removed from the UN terrorists’ list would play an important role in this process. “Obviously, we want those who are combatants or who are opposing the legitimate Afghan government to, of course, lay down their arms and participate politically and through the Afghan constitution,” said Mr Ventrell when asked to comment on the Taliban plan to form a political party.

Asked if the Taliban had responded to US calls for peace talks, the State Department official said he was not in a position to update the media on this issue.

Mr Ventrell said the US had succeeded in increasing the capacity of Afghan security forces to fight insurgents and Afghan forces were now leading nearly 90 per cent of operations across the country.

“We’ve signed the Strategic Partnership Agreement. We’re negotiating a new bilateral security agreement. We’re working on preparations for a free, inclusive, and transparent election in 2014,” said Mr Ventrell while explaining how the US was moving steadily towards political transition in Afghanistan.

The US media, while reporting the Taliban plan to form a political party, noted that Pakistan too was helping this process and recently it sent an influential religious leader to meet Taliban representatives in Qatar to help broker peace.