Pakistan Will do Whatever Kabul Wants for Peace

Pakistan is willing to do whatever the Afghans want to help facilitate an end to 10 years of war with the Taliban, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters on Thursday.

Speaking a day after talks with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul billed as a fence-mending visit designed to ease frosty ties, Pakistan's top diplomat sought to refute perceptions that Islamabad was an obstacle to peace.

Pakistan is widely accused of harboring the Taliban and the Haqqani network, whose leaders are based in Pakistan.

"We're willing to do whatever the Afghans want or expect," Khar told reporters when asked whether Pakistan was ready to push the Haqqani network towards peace negotiations, but stopped short of naming the group or commenting further.

She said an effective peace process was still "miles away" but that the process should be "Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, Afghan-driven".

"Once the Afghan people decide the way forward, whatever assistance Pakistan can give, it will give," she said.