Afghanistan: Tribal council aims for dialogue

The Taliban dismissed the three-day gathering as a US-organised farce.

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, excused himself from attending by citing "engagements in the capital" as the reason for a meeting to which he agreed nearly a year ago.

But despite the party poopers, Kabul has been spruced up to receive guests from neighbouring Pakistan for a headline meeting that was first announced in Washington in September last year following separate meetings of Musharraf and Hamid Karzai, his Afghan counterpart, with George Bush, the US president.

That over 300 delegates from across the border are in the city is in itself unusual, as Pakistanis rarely visit Afghanistan.

"Travel between the two countries has mainly been in one direction. Millions of Afghans have gone to Pakistan as refugees," says Amin Mudaqiq, the Kabul bureau chief of Radio Azadi.

Need for dialogue

Exchanges, especially post 9/11, have been largely between governments.