The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan will seek closer cooperation

The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan will seek closer cooperation in the fight against militants during a summit in Istanbul beginning later Monday, but a plan to reach out to Taliban insurgents will likely dominate the talks.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari meet a day ahead of a London conference where Afghanistan and the international community are set to agree on a framework for the Afghan government to take responsibility for its own security. The two men were set to meet on the sidelines of a summit with Turkey, which has been working behind the scenes to repair relations between the two, notably over negotiations with the Taliban.

Pakistan has long played an important role in Afghan affairs, having nurtured the Taliban in the 1990s, but Kabul remains suspicious that Islamabad is pursuing its own agenda to the detriment of Afghanistan. Afghan ambassador to Turkey Masood Khalili said the aim of the meet was to "forge cooperation that might lead to reconciliation in the region. Everybody is thirsty for peace."

Nato top gen: Afghan peace deal is possible

Afghan president Hamid Karzai is under intense pressure from Western backers to strengthen Afghanistan’s security forces at a time of worsening violence, and is preparing a programme to reintegrate some Taliban insurgents in order to encourage them to lay down arms.

Pakistan is seeking to play a role in that process. Islamabad said on Saturday it was reaching out to "all levels" of the Afghan Taliban in a bid to encourage peace in its neighbourhood.

Signalling Nato was open to a political solution even as US president Barack Obama sends an extra 30,000 US troops, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan said he hoped increased troop levels would weaken the Taliban enough for its leaders to accept a peace deal and bring the war to an end.

"As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there’s been enough fighting," Gen Stanley McChrystal said in an interview in the Financial Times on Monday.