KABUL - The main political opposition parties of the president Hamid Karzai are in talks with the Taliban and Islamist groups, hoping to broker peace before next year’s exit of international combat troops and a presidential race that will determine Karzai’s successor, The Associated Press reported.

Senior Taliban officials quoted by the Associated Press said, the new channel of discussion has been opened by the opposition for the first time in a bid to find a political resolution to the war, now in its 12th year.

The latest approach by the political opposition of president Hamid Karzai will give a better chance to the opposition at cobbling together a post-Karzai government.

However there are concerns that a multiparty government after the 2014 elections could signal a return to the internecine fighting of the early 1990s that devastated Kabul.

This comes as president Hamid Karzai recently accused United States of colluding with the Taliban to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan and has attacked the Taliban for talking to foreigners while killing Afghan civilians in their homeland.

President Karzai also said that Washington has been holding talks with the Taliban group in middle east and European countries.

In the meantime the opposition united under a single banner called the council of Co-operation of Political Parties said it has reached out to both the Taliban and Hekmatyar, a one-time US ally who is now listed as a terrorist by Washington. (KP)