Afghan officials and Taliban representatives are to come face to face in a conference in Paris this week, officials said Sunday. The Paris-based Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique has already organised two conferences with other Afghan parties. The upcoming three-day event is the first in which the Taliban are also expected to attend.

An official with the High Peace Council (HPC) - set-up by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2010 in a bid to reach out to the Taliban movement - said three of its members are participating in the Paris conference.

They include former Taliban official Abdul Hakim Mujahid and Haji Din Mohammad, a Karzai advisor.

"They will explain the viewpoints of the council to the conference participants. They are not scheduled to hold private talks with the Taliban representatives at the sidelines of the conference," Farhad Ullah, a spokesman for the council, told dpa. However, Mujahid, who once acted as the Taliban envoy to the United Nations, said "face-to-face talks with the Taliban representatives" would be sought.

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2012