Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan - Possible negotiations with moderate elements of the Taliban are a decision for the Afghan government, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Tuesday during a visit to the Central Asian country.

But President Hamid Karzai's government must also make certain that any Taliban partners in such talks would distance themselves from violence, Jung said while visiting German troops in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

His comments were made after US President Barack Obama said in an interview with The New York Times published Sunday that he would consider a reconciliation effort to reach out to moderate members of the Taliban to turn around the conflict in Afghanistan.

The United States used similar tactics in Iraq to win over Sunni Muslim militants in the fight against the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The strategy, which was executed without the help of the Iraqi government, reduced violence.

The Taliban, however, flatly turned down negotiations.

Germany has 3,800 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, deploying the third-largest international force there after the United States and Britain.

Jung visited the police academy in Mazar-e Sharif and attended the groundbreaking for a new runway at the airport there.

The airfield at the German army's camp sends an "important impulse to business as well as about the security of Afghanistan," he said of the 30-million-euro
(37.94-million-dollar) project.

Jung is to also meet Wednesday in Kabul with David McKiernan, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, in which Germany participates. (dpa)