Afghan Taliban Team Arrives for Talks in Pakistan

Sunday, March 05, 2000 8:06 AM EST

ISLAMABAD (March 5) XINHUA - A Taliban team arrived here on Sunday for talks with visiting Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Boris Shikhmuradov on regional and bilateral issues, Afghan sources said here.

The talks will focus on the Afghan civil war and a proposed natural gas pipeline connecting Turkmenistan and Pakistan via Afghanistan.

The Taliban team comprises the Islamic militia's Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Zahid and Deputy Minister of Mines Mohammad Azam, said the sources.

Turkmenistan is the only Central Asian republic that enjoys good relations with the Taliban militia and it hosted the U.N.- sponsored peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan opposition alliance in its capital, Ashgabat, last year.

Being a member of the "Six Plus Two" group on Afghanistan,which is made up of Afghanistan's six immediate neighbors plus the United States and Russia, Turkmenistan has been actively involved in promoting reconciliation in its war-ravaged neighbor.

Shikhmuradov, who arrived here for a three-day visit,Saturday called, during talks with his Pakistani counterpart,Abdul Sattar, for a peaceful solution to the Afghan imbroglio.

The proposed two-billion-dollar Turkmenistan-Pakistan gas pipeline project is believed to be another major issue to be discussed between the Turkmen minister and the Taliban delegation.

According to an ambitious plan, the 1,464-kilometer-long pipeline will transport 20 million cubic meters of gas from southeastern Turkmenistan to Pakistan. However, the instability in Afghanistan has hindered the implementation of the plan.