We Will Not Negotiate With the Taliban, Insists Brown

Gordon Brown yesterday held out the hope that middle-ranking Taliban insurgents will renounce violence and join a political process of reconciliation with the Afghan leader, President Harmid Karzai.

The prime minister was setting out his long-awaited strategy for Afghanistan, including extra aid, military equipment and a drive against poppy production.

Denying that he was seeking to open direct talks with the Taliban, Brown claimed Nato was driving the insurgents and extremists out of their hiding places, preventing them from regrouping and attacking the areas around the provincial capitals where stability is taking hold.

He insisted his aim was "to defeat the insurgency by eliminating their leadership. I make it clear that we will not enter into any negotiation with these people."

Karzai has frequently offered to hold talks with the Taliban so long as they renounce violence. The Taliban has refused, insisting it will not talk unless foreign troops leave Afghan soil.

Brown was speaking in the Commons where he announced an extra £450m in development aid to 2012 and further military equipment, including extra helicopters. Much of the extra aid would be aimed at strengthening local democracy and finding farmers alternative livelihoods to poppy production. He revealed he would again be pleading with other Nato countries to supply extra helicopters. He also promised Britain would continue to push for the appointment of a strong UN envoy to "bring greater coherence across the international effort in security, governance and development and in relations with the Afghan government".

The prime minister's spokesman indicated that the UN is expected to make an appointment - almost certainly Lord Ashdown, the Liberal Democrat peer - shortly. Ashdown was at the Foreign Office last week to discuss the appointment and is due to take over in February.

Brown, fresh from talks with Karzai earlier this week in Kabul, also warned the Afghan government it needed to do more to come up with an effective poppy eradication programme, fight corruption and set up a more substantive system of regional co-operation, especially along the porous Afghan-Pakistan border.

He admitted the government had not made the progress it hoped in cutting poppy production in Helmand province.

"It will mean eradication of the crops on the ground, rather than aerial bombing, as well as persuading people to take up different activities," he said. "There is no future for Afghanistan's economy as long as people hang on to the idea that Afghanistan can still be the center supplying most of the world's narcotics."

Baroness Ashton, the leader of the Lords, in a parallel statement suggested it may take 15 years to end opium production.

Brown said the aim was to train 70,000 Afghan soldiers by the end of next year - 20,000 more than now but still a far smaller figure than what is needed to control the insurgency, according to most analysts. "It will take at least until 2012 for the Afghan National Army to be able to operate autonomously and even after that they will need support," one senior official said.

That is likely to mean that a substantial number of British troops will be deployed in Afghanistan for the next five years, though defense officials said that did not mean that they would be at their present number of about 7,500. While Brown told MPs that Nato-led forces were "winning the battle" in Afghanistan, senior government officials made it clear that a major shift in approach was needed if countering the Taliban insurgency was to succeed.

Greater emphasis will be placed on political, civil and economic initiatives - a move welcomed by British commanders - the officials said. "We need to step up a gear," said a senior British official. Part of the new initiative will be to step up efforts to divide the Taliban. "We are not talking to the Taliban, we are splitting the Taliban," the official added.

At a glance

· More emphasis on political and civil initiatives rather than military force

· Greater effort to "split" Taliban, encouraging fighters to lay down their arms

· Increase the Afghan army from 50,000 to 70,000

· 7,500 British troops to stay in Afghanistan, but unclear how long for

· 150 new armored vehicles

· £450m for development and stabilization