'Agreements in principle' with Taliban

Negotiators from the United States and the Afghan Taliban have reached "agreements in principle" on key issues for a peace deal that would end 17 years of war in Afghanistan, the top US envoy said on Monday.

In a statement, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, said the two sides have agreed in principle to the framework of a deal in which the Taliban would guarantee that Afghan territory will never be used by terrorists, which the envoy said could "lead to a full pullout of US troops in return for larger concessions from the Taliban".

Khalilzad said those concessions must include the Taliban's agreement to a cease-fire and to talk directly with the Afghan government, which the Taliban have persistently opposed in the past.