Turkey, which has hosted talks aimed at building trust between Pakistan and Afghanistan, has said it is open to allowing the establishment of a diplomatic presence for the Taleban on its soil, but that there is no formal request yet.

The proposal first surfaced during a trilateral summit in December between Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Istanbul, in which Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Kabul would welcome any offer by Turkey meant to facilitate talks with the Taleban.

Zardari, who is in Turkey for a state visit, declined to comment during a news conference on Wednesday with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul when asked if there had been any progress on letting the Taleban open such an office in Turkey. Gul, who was asked the same question, also declined to comment but said: “Our contribution to Afghanistan will always be within the context of cooperation with Afghan authorities.”

Afghanistan’s former President, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who leads a council tasked with starting peace talks with Taleban-led insurgents, held talks with Turkish government officials in Turkey in February.

A joint statement after those talks said Afghanistan and Turkey would work “with all concerned parties in promoting the peace process in order to ensure successful outcomes.”

Afghan and Pakistani intelligence agencies suspect each other of secretly encouraging militant factions to launch attacks to destabilize each other’s governments in the hope of winning greater influence once Western forces leave the region.

Turkey, the largest Muslim country in NATO, has troops in non-combat roles with NATO forces in Afghanistan, and also has well established military-to-military contacts with Pakistan.

While US-led NATO forces have built up troops in Afghanistan there is also a search for a political solution.