Canada could be convinced to back plans for political reconciliation in order to bring peace to Afghanistan but only if a number of stiff conditions are met first, says Canada's ambassador to the country.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been reaching out to the insurgents in hopes of ending the war.
Last month, Mr. Karzai won endorsement from a national conference for his plan to offer incentives to the militants to lay down their arms, and to seek talks with the Taliban leadership.
The Taliban have publicly shunned the offer, and the United States is skeptical whether peace can succeed until the Taliban are weakened on the battlefield.
Canadian Ambassador William Crosbie said there's no doubt that reconciliation is the key to solving Afghanistan's woes but he said the political discourse is "going too far, going too fast".
"The challenge for us and what Canada has said in the past in terms of our reluctance to support reconciliation is the process. It will determine the outcome," said Mr. Crosbie in an interview with The Canadian Press.
He said the international community has to be fully involved and to ensure that any reconciliation process involves all ethnic groups and women.
"The international community should be insisting that the process is one that includes all Afghans because the reconciliation cannot be between the Karzai government and the Taliban leadership. That's a recipe for disaster," said Mr. Crosbie.
"It has to be a reconciliation among Afghans to come back to build the future of their country in a way that each ethnic and women's groups feels it respects their interests," he said.
"It's going to take time. The government is in a weak position, particularly in the south. If the process is not inclusive then the outcome is going to be flawed and it could lead to another civil war."
Mr. Crosbie said Canada supports "the concept of reconciliation."
But he said efforts from NATO countries now supporting Afghanistan should be in basically convincing neighbours to butt out of the process. He said peace will not be attainable as long as foreign fighters from Pakistan, Iran and other countries keep coming across the border.
"Many more foreign fighters, many more who come over from the safe havens in Pakistan and that's the part that the international community needs to work on with Pakistan, with India, with Iran, with other neighbouring countries," Mr. Crosbie said.
"The Afghans are never going to have peace or reconciliation in their country unless the neighbours support the future we're trying to create."
Mr. Crosbie said there is an opportunity to bring back Afghans who have joined the insurgency back into the mainstream of Afghan life.
"I know myself, through our own contacts with Taliban commanders who want to lay down their arms and what they say to us through third parties is we're tired of fighting. We know we can't win," he said.
"We want to come back to our families but who's going to protect us from the other insurgents, who is going to protect us from the Afghan security forces from ISAF?"
The Taliban have taken advantage of widespread discontent over government corruption and resentment among ethnic Pashtuns over the growing power of other ethnic groups.
A resolution adopted at last month's Kabul conference calls for militants who join the peace process to be removed from a UN blacklist, which imposes travel and financial restrictions on 137 people associated with the Taliban.