The President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has invited elements of the former regime, the Taliban, to take part in forthcoming national elections and to help rebuild the country.
Mr Karzai excluded from his offer senior Taliban members linked to al-Qaeda, whom he described as enemies.
A US expert on Afghanistan, Barnet Rubin, said that providing a list of those excluded might get some Taliban to move over to the other side.
