ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: Pakistan is one of the 18 countries which are not in the main conference room of the UN-sponsored talks on Afghanistan in Bonn, but would be able to exchange views with the UN delegates and Afghan representatives.

Speaking at a news conference, the United Nations Information Centre director, Eric Falt, said Pakistan, India, Iran, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, China, France, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Japan, Norway, Korea and Turkey are observers sitting on the margins.

He said that Switzerland and the European Union have requested accreditations to the UN for observing the talks on Afghanistan.

In response to a query about the absence of Taliban from the Bonn talks, Mr Falt said that one should not confuse the Taliban with Pakhtoons. The Pakhtoons are represented in the Bonn talks, he said.

Giving insight into the talks in Bonn, Mr Falt said that the UN special representative on Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, and his deputy, Francesc Vendrell, would be shuttling back and forth between the groups in an effort to reach a consensus on the issues on the table.

He said the four Afghan groups present in the conference will be conducting bilateral talks. Once a consensus is reached, he said, the groups would go to a plenary and formalize it.