Pakistan drafts peace deal with militants

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani (R) speaks with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta during a meeting at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad yesterday. Spanta arrived in Pakistan to hold talks with new government leaders. Photo: AFP

Pakistan's new government has drafted a peace agreement with Taliban militants in its troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials and a rebel spokesman said yesterday.
The government launched talks with the Islamist rebels soon after winning elections in February, amid concerns that the military-orientated tactics of President Pervez Musharraf were spawning more violence.
The aim is to transform a month-long lull in a wave of suicide bombings into a permanent peace with the rebels, who have fought the government since Islamabad joined the US-led "war on terror" in 2001.
"Work is in progress swiftly on a new peace agreement with the Taliban Movement of Pakistan," a senior security official told AFP, adding that "indirect negotiations" through tribal elders were ongoing.