Peshawar, 3 Sept. (AKI/DAWN) - The former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani has said that the Afghan government has taken measures to engage the Taliban in dialogue to try and restore peace in the country.

“Without the participation of Taliban and [Afghan warlord] Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, peace cannot be established in the war-ravaged country,” said Rabbani who was president of Afghanistan from 1992-96.

Rabbani was speaking at a one-day seminar entitled “Pak-Afghan Relations” in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Sunday.

“Talks are a better way to resolve problems than guns. Wars make problems worse instead of resolving them. We have to adopt the path of talks,” he said.

Rabbani said he was strongly opposed to the proposed US plan of moving US forces from Iraq to Afghanistan and said it would make no difference.

He said the situation could be further aggravated if the US went ahead with the plan.

He said some international powers were afraid of better relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said the US and NATO forces had come to Afghanistan not to serve its people, but they had their own vested interests.

He called upon Pakistan and Afghanistan to resolve all problems through talks instead of engaging other foreign countries.

He said the foreign policy of Afghanistan was aimed at developing friendly relations with all countries, with special focus on neighbouring countries.

“I believe in the simple fact that Pakistan is for Afghanistan and the vice versa,” Rabbani said.

The former director-general of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani denied that Pakistan was involved in establishing a friendly government in Afghanistan.

“We believe that a government, acceptable to its people, is a friendly government,” he said.