LONDON (Reuters) – Major world powers opened talks on Thursday seeking an end to the grinding conflict in Afghanistan, drafting plans to hand over security responsibilities to local forces and quell the insurgency with an offer of jobs and housing to lure Taliban fighters to renounce violence. Afghan President Hamid Karzai greeted delegates from about 70 nations and institutions in London, seeking to win new international support after more than eight years of combat which is threatening to exhaust public good will in the West. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also joined talks aimed at setting targets to transfer security control of several Afghan provinces to the local police and military by the end of 2010. "This is a decisive time for the international cooperation that is helping the Afghan people secure and govern their own country," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, opening the one-day talks. "This conference marks the beginning of the transition process." Brown said the conference would set a target for Afghanistan to increase its military to 171,600 by October 2011, and boost police numbers to 134,00 by the same date. "By the middle of next year we have to turn the tide," he said. Karzai envisions Afghanistan's government taking control of security in all 34 provinces by 2015, but said he expected foreign troops to stay in his country for up to a decade. Announcing his plan to lure Taliban soldiers back into mainstream society with offers of jobs and housing, Karzai said Afghanistan was moving "slowly but surely toward the end goals of peace and stability". Karzai called for support from Afghanistan's neighbours – especially Pakistan and oil-rich, influential Saudi Arabia. "We hope that his majesty Saudi King Adbullah will kindly take a prominent role to guide and assist the peace process," he said. The Afghan chief said he would convene a peace jirga – or conference – to discuss the proposals. "We must reach out to all our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers who are not part of al-Qaeda or other terrorist networks," Karzai told the meeting. Pakistan, which once sponsored Taliban forces but turned against them under American pressure in 2001, now hopes to play a role as a broker in proposed negotiations among Taliban leaders and the Afghan government, with support from the United States. Until recently, Pakistan had been on hostile terms with the neighbouring government in Kabul and had sought to distance itself from the problems of insurgency across the border, while struggling to curb a homegrown Taliban movement that has carried out dozens of bombings and suicide attacks in Pakistan in the past several years. Now, however, Pakistani officials have taken a sudden interest in promoting peace in Afghanistan, a change analysts attribute to a combination of self-interest and fear. Pakistan, they said, hopes a power-sharing arrangement in Kabul that includes the Taliban would be friendlier to its interests; and it worries that if the Afghan conflict drags on, its domestic extremist problem will spin out of control. International allies will pledge at least $500 million for Karzai's programme, but Western diplomats said the money would not pay for cash inducements. Funding will be used to create jobs in the country's police and army, or in agriculture – and pay for housing, officials said. US special representative Richard Holbrooke said many low-and midlevel Taliban fighters were motivated by financial need, rather than ideological support for the Taliban or al-Qaeda. In a sign of possible tensions over the ambition of the programme, Holbrooke said negotiations with higher ranking insurgents were unlikely, while Karzai and other Western officials indicated that, over the longer term, the programme may eventually target leadership figures. Officials in London suspect Karzai hopes to eventually bring some Pakistan-based leaders of the Afghan Taliban into the political process – if they agree to renounce violence.
