国际英语新闻:Pakistan's gov't-backed conference calls for talks with Taliban

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- A conference of Pakistan's ruling and opposition parties Monday unanimously asked the government to hold dialogue with the armed Taliban militants to end the bloodshed in the country.

The conference was convened by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to seek suggestions from the mainstream political and religious parties to devise a policy of national security, including talks with the Taliban.

"We repose full confidence in efforts of the Prime Minister for peaceful solution to problems and call upon the federal government to initiate the dialogue with all stakeholders forthwith and for this purpose," a resolution of the All Parties Conference said.

Pakistani Taliban welcomed the announcement and said the group' s central council will soon issue a detailed statement. The Taliban spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, said that the group's central council will soon meet to give response to the government' s offer.

The resolution issued at the daylong deliberations of the conference also strongly condemned the U.S. drone strikes in the country's tribal regions and said these attacks cause civilian deaths.

"We are unanimous that the use of drones is not only a continued violation of our territorial integrity but also detrimental to our resolve and efforts of eliminating extremism and terrorism from our country."

The conference urged the government to consider the possibility of taking the drone issue to the United Nation as drone attacks are a violation of international law.

"We declare that we shall ourselves determine the means and mode of fighting this war in our national interest and shall not be guided by the United States of America or any other country in this regard," the resolution said.

"Thousands of precious lives of innocent men, women and children and defense and security personnel have been lost in the war, the illegal and immoral U.S. drone attacks and the blow-back from actions of NATO/ISAF forces in Afghanistan," the resolution said.

"There have also been colossal damages to social and physical infrastructure and huge consequential financial losses and adverse effects on our economy," it added.

The army chief General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani and intelligence head Lt. General Zaheer-ul-Islam Abbasi also attended the conference and briefed the participants about the overall security situation in the country.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his remarks at the conference had stated that dialogue with the militants should be given priority as the country has suffered a lot with the killing of over 40,000 people and huge financial losses due to terrorism.