Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Friday he was prepared to negotiate with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar for the sake of peace in Afghanistan but only if he freed himself from 'foreign slavery'.
Karzai two years ago offered an olive branch to members of the Taliban regime driven from power in 2001 but the then offer of amnesty excluded the leaders of the movement "whose hands are stained with blood".
"Those people, if it is Mullah Mohammad Omar or others, if they want to talk and negotiate with us, they are welcome but they should first free themselves from foreign slavery and come to their own land and live in peace," Karzai told reporters.
"For the sake of peace in Afghanistan, we are ready to negotiate with them. We have always negotiated with their supporters and people who control them, and will do again," he said.
The Afghan government and Karzai himself have often accused neighbouring Pakistan of harbouring extremists and insurgents, and even supporting them. Pakistan has always denied the claim.
Karzai said however he was not offering amnesty to Mullah Omar or Afghan commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is also leading a rebel faction behind the everyday violence in Afghanistan.
He was also vague about how the offer of talks would fit in with demands from the United States and others for the arrest of the men, who have bounties worth millions of dollars on their heads.
"If Mullah Mohammad Omar, as an Afghan, frees himself from foreign claws and comes and sits with his people, we can talk with the international community," he said.
However if the wanted men came to Afghanistan -- a reference to the belief that the Taliban leader is hiding out in Pakistan -- Afghans would be able to begin legal action against them for alleged abuses, he said.
"If any one had any legal cases against them, they can do that," he said.
Karzai also said the world would only be safe from terrorism if the roots of the Taliban militancy were addressed, instead of Afghanistan being the only battlefield.
"With operations only in Afghan villages, terrorism is not going to be eradicated since its roots are not in Afghanistan, its resources are not in Afghanistan," he said.
"The international community needs to go to roots of terrorism not its results. It needs to focus on and bring more pressure over the resources of terrorism, training centres, places of finance and where they are given the ideology to come to Afghanistan and fight."