ISLAMABAD, 7 February 2004 — Afghanistan’s ousted Taleban rejected a reported offer of negotiations by the United States, considering the offer an attempt to create a rift among the ranks of the radical militia, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported yesterday.

In a statement faxed to the newspaper’s offices in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, the Taleban reacted sharply to the statement by a spokesman for the US forces that they were ready to hold talks with moderate Taleban members.

“Taleban and even a true Muslim and any upright Afghan would never agree to holding talks with those who attacked Afghanistan,” Taleban spokesman Hamid Agha said in the statement.

He accused the US of killing innocent people and detaining innocent Taleban members and Afghans in cages in the Guantanamo Bay prison.

“We will never be deceived by these statements and offers of reconciliation,” he added.

The spokesman said the Taleban have carried out successful operations against US troops and have made their lives in Afghanistan difficult.

The fundamentalist Taleban regime was toppled by a US-led attack in late 2001. Meanwhile, deputy Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, Andrew Leslie, said yesterday that the force intends to double its presence in the country.

“Now we have 6,000 ISAF troops in Kabul. We’re looking at bringing that up to between 8,000 and 12,000 troops countrywide in the coming three or four years”, Leslie said.

The Canadian NATO general told reporters that up to 24 Provisonal Reconstruction Teams — small teams of up to 300 troops who mainly provide security for aid workers and assist in reconstruction work — could be under ISAF command within two to three years.

Just one PRT — a team of German troops in the northern city of Kunduz — is currently working under an ISAF mandate, although NATO Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said he hopes to establish five more before Afghan elections in June. A further eight PRTs are under U.S. command as part of “Operation Enduring Freedom”.