AFGHAN PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai has announced the formation of a new council at which Afghani officials will meet directly with the Taliban in order to try and convince the group to pursue peace.

The High Peace Council, announced by Karzai’s office this afternoon, forms a “significant step towards peace talks”.

The Taliban took power of Afghanistan in 1986 and ruled the country until being overthrown by American forces when they invaded in 2001. Since then it has fought the government in an attempt to expel all foreign troops from the country.

Previous attempts to negotiate with the group have been stonewalled with the group insisting that all foreign troops would have to leave the country before it would speak to leaders.

The membership of the council will announced next week. The formation of the council was approved at a “peace jirga” in June, but that jirga was criticised by the Taliban at the time as being created for the benefit of foreign powers.

The announcement came after a suicide bomber on a motorbike killed seven people including four policemen, and injured sixteen others, in the northern province of Kunduz.

Meanwhile, NATO has announced the capture of a senior Taliban commander, and the killing of six insurgents, following an early morning raid on a rebel hide-out.