"The time has come to embrace a more fully pledged process of dialogue with the insurgency," former United Nations special representative Kai Eide said at a press conference in Oslo to launch his new book on Afghanistan.

"Are the Taliban ready to move into that kind of dialogue? In my view they are but I cannot say with certainty," said Eide, who stepped down as top UN official to Kabul in March following the fraud-tainted presidential vote.

"NATO cannot win the war and the Taliban cannot win the war," he added. "So we're in a stalemate."

The next four to five winter months, marked by less military activity, offer "a window" for discussions, Eide said. He suggested several measures for fostering confidence between the two sides, including limited ceasefires.

"The only way forward is not to pose any preconditions for sitting down, but once you sit down, then you start discussing what your preconditions for a solution may be," he said.

Any agreement must respect three red lines established by the Afghan government he said; notably that the Taliban accept the country's constitution especially with respect to women's rights, that they lay down their arms and that they sever ties to Al-Qaeda.

earlier related report
Suicide bomber kills five Afghans, three NATO soldiers die
Kabul (AFP) Nov 5, 2010 - A suicide bomber killed five people in a crowded bazaar in a remote Afghan town on Friday, police said, as NATO announced the deaths of three soldiers.

The bomber was on foot and detonated explosives strapped to his body near the leader of a local council, Rahmatullah Turkistani, killing five civilians and injuring the official, a police commander told AFP.

Another 21 people were hurt in the blast in Khwaja Sabzposh district in northern Faryab province, provincial police chief Abdul Khalil Andarabi said.

The apparent target was Turkistani, chairman of the Faryab provincial council, he said.

Separately, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said three foreign soldiers were killed -- two on Thursday and one on Friday -- fighting insurgents in the south.

Southern Afghanistan is the heartland of the Taliban insurgency, though the Islamist militia have expanded their campaign to the once peaceful north.

The new deaths took to 620 the number of foreign soldiers killed in the Afghan war this year, the deadliest for the US-led military coalition since the toppling of the Taliban in late 2001.

The United States and NATO have more than 150,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban-led insurgency, now in its 10th year.

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