A senior official said on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates had agreed to a UN request to host talks among Afghan factions on the political future of their country, according to Reuters.
A UAE official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the UAE had agreed to host the conference within days.
The unnamed source confirmed an Abu Dhabi TV report which said the UAE had "agreed to a UN request to host a conference of Afghan factions."
"The conference, expected to be held in the next few days, will discuss Afghanistan's political future and the formation of a broad-based government," it said.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told Abu Dhabi satellite channel that the US was aware of the move and welcomed it.
An Afghan conference is part of a five-point UN plan unveiled at an emergency session of the Security Council on Tuesday after the opposition Northern Alliance captured Kabul from the hardline Islamist Taliban militia, AFP said.
Earlier, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC received a Qatari proposal to host the upcoming meeting of Afghan factions under the umbrella of the 57-nation in the capital Doha next week.
The Afghan meeting would aim - as the diplomats said - to map out a political settlement following the end of five years of Taliban rule and the seizure of Kabul.
According to Al Qaeda organization leader Osama bin Laden, the withdrawal of Taliban militia from Kabul and other cities is a way to stop the war against Afghanistan.
The ruling Taliban militia "evacuated" Kabul and other cities according to a strategy aimed at “withdrawing from the main cities.. to stop the US bombing and end the bloody air strikes,” said Hamid Mir, the Pakistani journalist who held an exclusive interview with Bin Laden.
“The withdrawal will force the US to fight a ground war, as it will eventually send its forces to Kabul and the other Taliban-evacuated cities,” Mir said, citing Bin Laden – Albawaba.com
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