Islamabad - Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Wednesday that his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta had confirmed his government had held talks with Taliban representatives in Saudi Arabia.

"Mr Spanta shared with me that, yes, there was an informal contact between the Afghan government and Taliban that took place between some clergymen from Afghanistan and some elements from the previous setup (Taliban regime) in Afghanistan," he told reporters in Islamabad in a joint press briefing with Spanta.

Spanta said the reconciliation process would move ahead only if militants were "ready to put down their weapons," accept the Afghan constitution and "live a peaceful life."

Berlin  - Germany affirmed its military operations in Afghanistan on Wednesday, two days after a Taliban suicide bomber killed two German soldiers and five Afghan children in the northern city of Kunduz.

"Reconstruction in Afghanistan is impossible without security," government deputy spokesman Thomas Steg said.

He said German Chancellor Angela Merkel had sent condolences to the families of all seven bomb victims.

Islamabad  - Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta confirmed for the first time Wednesday that his government had held talks with Taliban representatives in Saudi Arabia.

But he warned that the reconciliation process would move ahead only if militants were "ready to put down their weapons," accept the Afghan constitution and "live a peaceful life."

"But we are at the beginning of the process," he told reporters in Islamabad after a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi. He declined to give any details of the talks.

Ghazni, Oct 22 : The Taliban in Afghanistan have reportedly directed the five mobile phone operators to shut their networks during the day time, as, they, say the mobile signals help the Afghan security agencies in tracking their fighters.

“We have informed mobile companies operating in Ghazni to turn off their signals during the daytime now as it endangers the lives of our fighters. We want the companies to cut off their signal for 10 days from now. The order might be extended,” the Dawn quoted Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid as saying.

The Taliban insurgents said that they had told the mobile phone operators to shut down their networks during the day in the Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul.

Kabul - US-led coalition forces mistakenly bombed an Afghan national army position in eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing nine soldiers and wounding three others, officials said.

The incident took place in Sayedkhail district of the south-eastern province of Khost when a coalition convoy was returning from an operation, the US military said in a statement.

"Initial reports from troops on the ground indicate that this may be a case of mistaken identity on both sides," the statement said.

Kabul- Afghanistan's appeals court sentenced on Tuesday an Afghan journalist to 20 years in prison for blasphemy, a crime punishable by death in Islamic law.

The ruling overturned a death sentence handed earlier to Perwiz Kambakhsh by primary court in northern Afghanistan for distributing articles downloaded from the internet which questioned the rights of women under Islam.