US Defense Secretary Robert Gates says it is unlikely Taliban leaders would reconcile with Afghanistan's government but that lower ranking insurgents might be open to making peace with Kabul.
Gates welcomed plans announced on Sunday by President Hamid Karzai's government to launch a new bid at making peace with Islamist militants, but said Taliban chief Mullah Omar and other leaders would be reluctant to lay down their arms until circumstances changed on the battlefield.
"Just speaking personally, I'd be very surprised to see a reconciliation with Mullah Omar," Gates told reporters aboard his plane en route to India.
"I think it's our view that until the Taliban leadership sees a change in the momentum and begins to see that they are not going to win, that the likelihood of reconciliation at senior levels is not terribly great," he said.
Kabul on high alert
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Gates's comments comes as the Afghan capital sits on high alert following an attacks byTaliban gunmen and suicide bombers who struck the heart of Kabul, launching a wave of attacks that left five people dead and sent terrified residents fleeing.
The authorities are likely to face questions about how the militants were able to penetrate the highly-fortified city centre, although the NATO chief praised local security forces for their defence of the capital.
"Our security measures are always strict, we are always on high alert, and we will be tomorrow, and after," interior ministry spokesman Zamary Bashari said late Monday.
Heavily-armed militants targeted government buildings near the presidential palace, two shopping centres, a cinema and Kabul's only five-star hotel in a co-ordinated blitz of attacks launched at rush-hour on Monday.
Several suicide bombers blew themselves up at key sites, setting off blazing fires that sent plumes of black smoke into the sky, as Afghan security forces battled militants on the otherwise deserted streets.
Hopes placed on reconciliation plan
President Karzai's new reconciliation plan will be announced ahead of a major international conference on Afghanistan due in London on January 28, his spokesman Waheed Omar said on Sunday -a day before the audacious attack on Kabul.
Conceding that past efforts at peace have failed, Omar said the new plan would include economic incentives, as many Taliban fighters had joined for cash rather than to support a hardline religious ideology, he said.
President Barack Obama's administration had not yet seen the details of Kabul's new initiative, but Gates said wooing insurgents was vital to resolving the war.
Karzai has long called for peace talks with the Taliban - even offering government posts to its leaders - but the insurgents have refused dialogue until the withdrawal of NATO-led troops on which Kabul relies for security.
