Choose path to peace

US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday urged Afghanistan's Taliban militants to follow the recent example of a notorious warlord and make an "honourable" peace with the Kabul government.

Kerry said a peace deal signed last month by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who heads the Hezb-i-Islami group and is designated a global terrorist by the United States, was a "model for what might be possible".

"There is a path toward an honourable end to the conflict that the Taliban have waged -- it is a conflict that cannot be won on the battlefield," Kerry told an international donor conference in Brussels.

Hekmatyar's deal requires him to stop violence, end ties with "international terrorist organisations" and accept Afghanistan's constitution including guarantees of rights for women, Kerry said.

In return the group "will be able to emerge from the shadows to rejoin Afghan society." He added: "The message for the Taliban would be: take note."

Hekmatyar, widely known as the "butcher of Kabul" in Afghanistan, was a prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s who stands accused of killing thousands of people in the Afghan capital during the 1992-1996 civil war.

At the conference, world powers pledged billions of dollars for war-ravaged Afghanistan until 2020.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced that the 28-nation bloc will pledge 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion) a year and said "I would expect similar levels of engagement from our partners."

"There will not be any donor fatigue on Afghanistan," she added.

Mogherini said a dinner of key regional players including China, India and Pakistan on Tuesday night had "found common ground" for the Afghan peace process.

"The European Union will try to facilitate this as much as possible in the coming months," she said.