Kabul has laid out an ambitious and contentious five-step plan that could bring hardline Taliban Islamists into government as efforts to broker peace accelerate ahead of the withdrawal of Western troops.
Kabul's "Peace Process Roadmap", obtained by AFP this week, outlines a vision in which by 2015, "Taliban, Hizb-e-Islami and other armed groups will have given up armed opposition".
The first step calls for a focus on "securing the collaboration of Pakistan" in the peace process.
The second step in Kabul's roadmap calls for initial moves towards formal direct negotiations with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia in the first half of next year, with the backing of the US and Pakistan.
Step three of the roadmap, set for the second half of 2013, calls for agreements on a ceasefire and the transformation of the Taliban and other armed groups into political parties which could take part in elections.
The final steps in the plan include securing a peaceful end to the conflict during the first half of 2014 and moves to sustain the "long-term security and stability of Afghanistan and the region".